Team One
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: AU What if Naruto ended up not on Team 7 or any of the other Teams, but one of those that didn't make the original cut? Such as Team One. With different teammates and a new Jounin Sensei, what will happen in Naruto's future? Naru/Hina-dating
1. Team One

Title: Team One

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by some Japanese company, both Manga and Anime and Movies. I don't own any of that, so I really don't care who does, I'm just writing cause I enjoy it. But seriously the primary owner is a guy by the name of Masashi Kishimoto and ever since he started focusing his series called "Naruto" on the character called Sasuke, everybody's been &itching about it and I've stopped watching it until they stop whining. Still, it's a good verse to write in and the fanfiction is turning out to be a lot more entertaining than the canon.

Summary: What if Naruto was not placed in Team Seven? What if he was placed in Team One instead?

AN: Quite a few characters that are more or less OCs, but are based upon certain fictional ninja characters from a multitude of other series, most notably Naruto's Teammates and Jounin-sensei. Kasumi is *based* off of the same character from the DOA Fighting Game/Anime/Live Action Movie series. Ryu is based off of every single fictional character that has the same name. Or he will be. Team One Sensei is based off a character from "Marvel VS Capcom" named Hayato Kanzaki and think of him as a Ninja Jedi, but the excuse is his "lightsaber" is powered by chakra instead of something else. BTW, I'm imagining Hayato's voice to be that of Scott McNeil, the actor that did Piccolo in the dubbed DBZ and DBGT series, just FYI.

AN2: This is *NOT* the Kasumi from latter DOAs and so forth. She's *13* for crying out loud, at least in this fic, so I'm not about to depict a girl that age wearing nothing but a blue kimono with strings at the waist, stockings, and her panties on display for all to see!

AN3: Ryu's appearance is mostly identical to that of Ryu Hayabusa of the Ninja Gaiden games, for this chapter.

AN4: Technique names were going to be done in English, but because of my use of proper Japanese use of names and so forth, I finally decided to go with the 'Subtitled' approach. So for the first chapter here, you'll see "_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone Technique)" and "_shunshin no jutsu_ (Body Flash technique)" or just Flash technique for short. In "conversation" only English will be used, for simplicity of reading and writing.

Sound track:

"Team One Kicks Butt" - Daft Punk's original "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" from their _Alive_ album.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone" - Nickelback's "Side of a Bullet" from their _All the Right Reasons_ album.

"Team One Strikes!" - Within Temptation's "Stand My Ground" from their _The Silent Force_ album.

"Chakra Fusion Finale" - Kevin Rudolf featuring Lil Wayne "Let It Rock".

Story:

"All right, all right, settle down, settle down," Iruka called out to the class.

The incessant chatter continued.

Taking a deep breath, Iruka then performed one of the few techniques he had enough experience in using that he didn't need seals to perform it. The lighting dimmed and the temperature dropped as Iruka's head grew to a ginormous size and he screamed loud enough to knock several students out of their seats.

"***I SAID SETTLE DOWN AND SHUT YOUR TRAPS RIGHT ****NOW****!***" demon-head Iruka yelled.

Instant silence.

"Thank you," Iruka, now normally proportioned, calmly spoke. "Congratulations to everyone for passing the Academy Exams and congratulations for making genin! Now, as you all know, all ninja in Konoha are assigned to Teams, to balance and maximize the potential for our ninja forces. Which, of course means all of you have been assigned into three-man teams."

Seeing how quite a few became very excited by this, Iruka merely cleared his throat and continued.

"Understand, some of you may be hoping for some of your friends to be on your Team, and if that happens, great, but it doesn't always happen, and you may even wind up being placed with someone you rather wouldn't while the ones you did want to team up with went to another Team. So don't expect things to go your way just because. If you have a problem with being placed on a Team, or your future teammates..." Iruka paused to glare at them and invoked the demon-head technique to half its power, "... You can always quit the ninja program and go crying home to your parents!"

Complete silence.

"Now," Iruka was all smiles again, "I will call out the Teams and the number and when I call your name, merely acknowledge that you understand. So please don't make a fuss as it will just drag this whole process on longer and longer, all right? Good."

"Now then; Team One. Hayabusa Ryu, Tenshin Kasumi, and..." Iruka almost hesitated as he noticed something a little odd about the pairing he just read out, but it was all done by the Hokage himself, there was no mistake about it. "... and Uzumaki Naruto. Your Jounin Sensei will be Kanzaki Hayato. Team Two..." Iruka continued to read off the teams, not really noticing, or caring about the hearts he had just broken.

_'I don't get to team up with Sakura-chan. sigh Oh well. At least Ryu isn't so bad, and Kasumi-hime never made fun of me or anything. Then again... she never really spoke to me before, and I always thought she was a snob because she's the princess of the Mugen Tenshin clan. Coulda been worse. shiver Could've been Sasuke-teme. Now _THAT _I would raise a stink over!'_ Naruto thought.

_'I won't be on Naruto-kun's Team...'_ a quiet and timid Hinata sighed to herself in the back of the room.

_'Uzumaki? Coulda been worse!'_ Ryu grinned to himself, before thoughts turning to his other teammate. _'Heheheh, Kasumi-hime's on my Team! Heheheh...'_

_'Hayabusa is a loyal retainer. He will not disappoint,'_ Kasumi debated her teammates silently. _'Uzumaki... Loudmouth, class clown, was rumored that he failed, but performed some service last night that automatically qualified him as a genin. Surprising. Could have been worse, I suppose. At least it's not... shiver Ayane.'_

_'__**NOOO!! *I* was supposed to be on Kasumi-chan's Team!! IT'S NOT FAIR!!**__'_ a purple-haired girl sitting just behind the Clan Princess fumed. Her name was Mugen Raidou Ayane, a sworn retainer of the Mugen Tenshin Clan of Konoha. She was also a bit... obsessed with the idea that she was and would be Kasumi-hime's Royal Bodyguard. Thus she was highly upset that she was separated from the one person she was duty-bound to protect, at least in her mind.

As the Teams were rattled off and the numbers began to thin, Iruka finally made it to the last few teams.

"Team Seven. Haruno Sakura, Mugen Ayane, and Uchiha Sasuke." Later on, once the teams were publicly announced, most everybody balked at that particular match-up, partly because it was a bit screwed up with two girls and one guy instead of the other way around, another because Sasuke was known as the Last Uchiha, but mostly because all three were known to have... volatile personality quirks. In other words, most knew right off it was a Team made to fail. And the following announcement just cemented it for most, "You Jounin Sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

"Team Eight. Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your Jounin Sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai. Team Nine is still in Active Duty from the previous year. Team Ten. Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. Your Jounin Sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma. That is all. We will break for Lunch and afterwards wait here for your Jounin Senseis to come by and meet you all. Class dismissed."

With that, the year's latest graduating class of the Konoha Ninja Academy exited the halls as students for the last time. The next time they entered this room, it would be as shinobi of Konoha.

_One Hour Later_

_'Geez, all that trouble, beating up and defeating Sasuke, _WHERE NOBODY EVEN SAW ME DO IT!, _transforming into him, actually getting Sakura-chan to talk to me... and I'm beat by a lousy glass of _expired milk!! _Gotta say, my ninja career ain't starting off so great.'_ Naruto morosely thought to himself as he sat and waited with all the other Academy graduates for the Jounin Senseis to arrive.

Rather than place himself in his former seat, Naruto sought out, and of course asked to take the seat next to his new teammates. They silently agreed, for some reason both seemed a bit nervous, which confused Naruto. So what if it had taken him three times to pass the exam, and he did it via proxy in the end anyway? _Nothing_ was going to get in the way of his dream! He was going to be a ninja, nothing was going to stop that, and above all else, he was going to be Hokage! He had absolutely no doubts about his future.

Unfortunately, for the other members of Team One, they were not quite so sure about everything.

"Team One," Iruka announced, "Your Jounin Sensei, Kanzaki Hayato is here."

Their first impression of their new sensei could be summed up in three words; Total. Badass. Ninja.

Hayato was a lean figure, standing just over six feet at rest, well weathered skin, dark brown hair and dark eyes, which shown from beneath his forehead protector that he wore low over his eyes. His attire was very form-fitting, the black pants allowing for absolute freedom of movement and tucked securely into his steel-toed boots. At his waist, on his belt, they could see a standard jounin weapons pouch and another holster that was longer and gave them impression of being some kind of weapons hilt. He also wore a skin-tight sleeveless black shirt over his torso, and oddly enough, over that he wore a ripped and torn tunic, the sleeves torn off and the lower half ripped away. As he stood there before them, he crossed his arms, seemingly annoyed, and they noticed the fingerless gloves he wore, coupled with basic ninja gauntlets, or forearm protectors.

"Enough gawking," he growled at them after a full minute, "Let's go. I don't have time for games."

Startled, all three of them jumped to their feet and obediently followed their new sensei out of the room, and then out of the building... then out into the village... then past the village... out of the village gates... and all the way to Training Area 11. Naruto was the only one not out of breath by the time Hayato finally stopped, though he'd started complaining about wanting to know where they were going back at the gates.

Once they got there, Hayato stood before them and looked them all over, seeing what he had to work with. The one that immediately grabbed his attention was the short blond kid with blue eyes, wearing an _orange_ jumpsuit! Orange, for crying out loud!

Still, he was the demon-brat, as those on the Council called him, and not even two days ago did he learn and perform the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ and defeat an experienced, though treacherous, chuunin. He was no doubt full of surprises and the dopey look on his face was probably as much a disguise as it was misleading to the kid's potential.

Next was the taller kid, who looked like he'd hit a major growth spurt recently as he was taller than he looked like he should be, and too thin for his height. He had black hair, hazel eyes and a sun-soaked complexion. Also, unusual for a genin fresh from the Academy, he was dressed like a serious shinobi, all in black with light armor, gauntlets, shin guards, and a full face helmet that fit around his newly acquired forehead protector.

Finally, he looked over the one that he'd been avoiding for last. Kasumi. Her pearly skin was absolutely flawless, her auburn red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her brown eyes flashing with intelligence. She wore a kunoichi's tunic, bearing the colors of her clan proudly with a sky blue cloth, lined with cloud white seams. Her arms were left bare, though she had some shin guards over her legs along with a pair of white tights that covered everything, yet clung perfectly to her developing curves. On her feet she wore the standard sandaled boots, and at her waist she bore her symbol of the Leaf, which most normally wore as headbands to have the metal plate protect their foreheads, but she made it a very nice belt buckle in turn.

"All right, here's the deal," Hayato spoke to them, sounding gruff, serious, and apologetic too. "You all passed the Academy Exams. What that means, _all_ that means is that you have learned the basic skills, E-Rank skills of being a ninja, and have the potential to become genin. That does not mean that you _are_ genin yet."

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled.

"Why didn't they tell us this already?" Ryu demanded to know.

"..." Kasumi was silent, as she began to suspect what this man was trying to tell them.

"There is one more test you must pass before you will truly be shinobi of Konoha. A survival test if you will. But before we get to that, I believe it is better if we properly introduce ourselves." Hayato sat down on a nearby stump, propping his arm on his knees as he adopted the Thinker's pose while looking at them.

"All right then, allow me to go first," he said after an awkward minute of silence. "My name is Kanzaki Hayato. This will be my first time as a Jounin Sensei... provided you pass my test. I am a career ninja, I am not patient, I am very good at what I do, and I do not believe in Fate, Destiny, or any crap like that. I do, however, believe in consequences to people's actions. Your turn whiskers," he pointed at Naruto.

"ALL RIGHT!" Naruto screamed, his excitement mounting. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen! I dislike waiting the three minutes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are trying out all of the different ramen flavors and of course, training! My dream is to one day surpass all of the Hokages and become the greatest Hokage ever!"

"Hard to beat that," Ryu muttered, then spoke up. "My name is Hayabusa Ryu, everybody just calls me Ryu anyway. I like pretty girls, I dislike emo-avenger-wannabes, and my hobbies are training and mastering the ninja arts. My goal in life is to become the most powerful ninja that I can possibly be. If that's stronger than everyone else, then so be it, but I don't like to compare."

"And that leaves you, Princess," Hayato turned to the lone kunoichi.

"I am Tenshin Kasumi, heir to the Mugen Tenshin clan of Konoha. I enjoy learning new things, helping people, and testing my own limits. I dislike cruel people, ignorant people, and politicians. My destiny says that I will become the new Head of the Mugen Tenshin clan, but before that... I want to help people and live my own life. My goal is to one day defeat my older brother and be recognized as a strong kunoichi by my clan."

"Who's your brother?" Naruto blurted out.

The other three ninja stared at the short blond, not sure if he was joking or not. Upon seeing the genuine confusion on his face, they realized that he really didn't know.

"Tenshin Ein Hayate is the current Head of the Mugen Tenshin clan, and is a very powerful jounin of Konoha. He is also my older brother and on the Konoha Council," she said this last to their Jounin Sensei.

"Wow, that's cool!" Naruto enthused.

"Good, well, now that we know each other," Hayato interrupted, "Let's get on with the test, shall we?"

He stood up and walked around the stump before standing up on top of it, his arms crossed. "Each Instructor does their own test, based on themselves and their method of teaching. So don't be surprised if some of your friends tell you that they had an easier test after today. You are going to fight me, in actual combat. Your goal, is to make me take this seriously. And believe me, you'll know when that is. You aren't expected to win, nobody expects a genin, of any class, to actually defeat a jounin in one-on-one combat. Nevertheless, you won't even last one minute if you don't come at me with the intent to kill."

Naruto's eyes went wide, and his mouth hung open in shock. Ryu merely nodded and readied himself. Kasumi scowled and looked pissed. She had finally worked out what this was about and what was going on.

Before she could call him on it though, Hayato went right ahead and confirmed it. "Something else you three need to know. As much as I don't believe in destiny, you three are not going to pass this test. Because I won't let you."

Naruto, even more surprised, shouted out, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"Quite simple really," Hayato answered. "This test, which all the new genin will undergo, has a 66 percent dropout average. Out of the nine teams that were assigned today, only three, on average, will actually go on to become genins this year. Everyone else goes back to the Academy for remedial training. Some even drop out after that."

"Stop trying to psyche us out, and let's get this over with already!" Naruto screamed, suddenly angry.

"It's not a 'psyche out', boy," said Hayato. "It is the facts. Another fact... I was chosen by the Hokage to be Team One's Jounin Sensei because of who was on it. If that person had been placed on another team, I would be that team's Jounin Sensei. The reason why... well, on the advice of the Council, it was believed that this person should not become a shinobi."

Naruto growled, his thoughts swirling around what Mizuki had revealed to him, and the reasoning behind the village's persecution of him, and jumped to the conclusion that Hayato was talking about him.

Kasumi and Ryu, however knew differently. Kasumi was the heir to the most influential clan in the entire Fire Nation, and her brother, despite being a ninja himself and having done his tour of duty, did not want anything to happen to her and most of the clan agreed with him. Ryu was a close friend of Kasumi and had trained with her older brother a few times and so knew the dynamic that went on between them. Hayato had been made their instructor so that no matter how hard Kasumi tried, no matter who she was paired with, she would fail to become a genin and they both knew there was little doubt that even if she were to get a second chance, if not Hayato, then somebody even stronger would be there to stand in her way.

"THAT IS BULLSHIT!!" Naruto roared, startling all three ninja.

Glaring with all the passion his abused soul could give, he told the jounin what the new reality was all about. "If you think, just because you're a jounin that you can talk to us like that, you've got another thing coming! I don't care what the Council says about anything! I am going to be a ninja, and I'm going to be Hokage one day! So no matter what you throw at me, I'll just get back up and throw it right back at ya!"

"Nobody can make another person's choices for them! Everybody in the world has the right to do what they wish and to go after their dreams! All they have to do is work at it and anything is possible! My dream is to be Hokage, and no matter who says otherwise, I WILL BE HOKAGE SOMEDAY!!"

They all stared at him, not really sure how to react to that. Hayato merely shrugged, as though he couldn't care less what some Academy graduate had to say to him. Ryu started grinning, and he couldn't stop. Naruto's little speech touched something inside him, his passion for power and the desire to test himself against someone stronger, all to find his own strength. Kasumi, who'd been very close to a bout of self-doubt and depression at her brother's desire to protect her, felt her spirits lift immediately. She grinned at her teammates and gave Hayato a glare of her own, steel-like determination filling her eyes.

Hayato snorted, but finally acknowledged that they understood the situation, though a bit unnerved how a few words from the loudmouth had bolstered the Princess's resolve. He briefly wondered what had happened to Ayane, who was originally supposed to be on Kasumi's team. He would have imagined that after his announcement, she would merely swear her allegiance to protect Kasumi right then and there, which probably would have kicked Kasumi over the edge and it would have been simple to end it right then and there. Now this loudmouth blond in an orange jumpsuit comes along... and turns out he'll have a fight on his hands anyway.

"Enough talk then," said Hayato as he recrossed his arms, "You have until sunset. Which is in about four and a half hours. Begin!"

The three genin vanished.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

First lesson of being a ninja. The key to being a ninja is stealth, able to hide and mask yourself so that you are like a ghost, a wraith, something that is there but not there. Those that cannot do even this simple skill often do not last long in the world of a ninja.

"Oi, Hayato-sensei!" Naruto yelled in a loud voice from directly behind the jounin. "What do you mean when we have to get you to take us seriously?"

"You're a weird one, aren't you?" Hayato asked the blond kid.

Naruto scowled, but just crossed his arms, waiting for his answer.

Hayato shrugged and gave it to him. "I believe I already told you that you would know when I got serious, but to put it in simpler terms so you can understand; I have a specialized weapon that I keep on me at all times. It's not a kunai or shuriken or anything else any other ninja in the entire world has for that matter. If you put enough pressure on me, for even an instant, that I have to draw and use this weapon... you pass. If you don't get that to happen before sunset... you'll get sent back to the Academy. Although it might be possible that the one that does the poorest will get kicked out of the shinobi program altogether."

As he'd spoken, Naruto got more and more pissed off. Finally, with that last statement, the orange-clad blond had had enough. With a roar, he charged and tried to throw a punch, much the way a drunken brawler might do it to be perfectly honest. "LIKE HELL!!"

Hayato, who didn't even have to move, just reached out, caught the fist and twisted it around behind the kid's back, making him cry out in pain. Holding him like that for a few seconds, he finally said, "Look, your team is going back to the Academy regardless. The Council convinced the Hokage of this. But if you keep going on like this kid, you're going to be thrown to the streets faster than you'd know what to do."

Naruto snorted. "Big deal. Only reason I'm... not on the streets as it is... is because the Hokage got me an apartment after... I was kicked out of the orphanage. And weren't you listening earlier?" Naruto's muscles bunched and in a surprising display of strength and dexterity, broke out of Hayato's grasp and leapt away. "I'M GOING TO BE HOKAGE! AND NOTHING IS GOING TO STOP ME! _KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_!(Shadow Clone Technique)"

In a blast of smoke, there were suddenly ten more Naruto's before the Jounin Sensei.

"I'd heard you could do this technique, kid. Impressive, but not exactly making me sweat," said Hayato.

"Oh yeah? Well try this on for size!" they all shouted in unison, pulling out a pair of kunai and each throwing one of them while charging with the next.

Hayato sighed, standing perfectly still as all eleven kunai impacted on his body, which then exploded in a cloud of smoke revealing that the Narutos had only hit an ordinary log. "Crud! Replacement Technique!" the clones all cried, all of them starting to look around for the jounin.

Suddenly, the real Naruto yelled as he felt a tug and found himself buried up to his neck in the solid earth. Hayato appeared above him and said, "_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ (Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique)."

The clones all charged forward, but Hayato moved with unerring speed, punching each clone once causing them to dispel, leaving Naruto alone. He glared impotently up at the jounin, who merely crossed his arms and stood there waiting.

"Fine, wanna play hardball, huh?" Naruto growled, drawing Hayato's attention.

"Just... gotta... reach... THERE!" he exclaimed, right before the ground around him exploded.

Hayato was already a safe distance away and rolled his eyes. Figures that a rookie genin would think blowing yourself up is actually a valid or commonly used technique for ninja. Idiot.

"Hey Hayato-sensei," Naruto asked from right beside the taller ninja, "Were you talking about me earlier when you said that you were hired to stop one of us from becoming a ninja?"

Hayato, however momentarily startled, did not immediately react to the young ninja's presence, instead slowly turning to glare down at him from beneath his headband. "Honestly? No. I was talking about Kasumi. Why did you blow yourself up, by the way?"

"What are you talking about?" the unblemished Naruto asked from beside him.

The smoke from the explosion finally cleared, revealing... a crater and nothing else.

"He's quick," Hayato muttered.

"Thanks—" the clone barely had time to say before Hayato's fist tore through its skull, dispelling it.

"My turn!" a voice shouted from above and behind the jounin, in the trees. A blur of black sped forth and half an inch from from impact, the experienced jounin vanished, leaving the newbie genin holding a kunai to land in a heavy crouch where he once stood.

Ryu dashed forward, aiming for Hayato's new location, striking out with blade and fist, only to have the older ninja casually dodge, duck and weave around the expert strikes. After a few moments of this, Hayato finally uncrossed his arms, only to lash out with a strike of his own, sending Ryu careening back into the forest, knocking the wind out of him.

"OK... that isn't gonna work," Ryu wheezed, trying to get his breath back as he picked himself up.

"Let's try again!" he exclaimed, getting back to his feet and charging forward, as he noticed a dozen more of Naruto's clones coming in from the opposite side of the clearing. '_Excellent, I can use that as a distraction to land some heavy blows!_' he thought to himself.

Hayato sighed. This didn't even count as a warm-up. He'd been bored, so he'd accepted a "Classified C-Rank mission" from the Council, which turned out to be wasting one day fighting Academy Graduates and beating them up. Not exactly his idea of fun, or training.

Keeping his arms crossed, he kicked out with strikes so fast that the genin barely saw the blows. After, the clones had all been dispelled and both Naruto and Ryu had been knocked back, one on top of the other.

"So much for a distraction," Ryu grumbled. "Get off me, dobe!"

"HEY! That's what Sasuke calls me," Naruto commented as he stood up and helped his fellow ninja to his feet. Ryu, upon hearing this statement, froze and grimaced to himself.

"Uh, sorry. But you really are acting like a dobe if you think charging in screaming your head off is gonna work, even if there are a hundred of you, if Hayato-sensei sees any of us coming, we're splatter on the ground!" Ryu apologized. "Mind if I call you Naruto, instead?"

"Sure!" Naruto grinned enthusiastically. "Can... is it all right if I call you... Ryu?"

The black clad ninja merely nodded and turned to face the jounin once more. "Teammates should at least be close enough to call each other by their name, yeah?"

Naruto's grin nearly split his head, before he turned to face Hayato with renewed determination and screamed out loud, "YEAH! Let's do this!" The two, only peripherally aware that they were doing so, charged forward together, Naruto summoning another dozen shadow clones as they did so.

Hayato raised an eyebrow at this sudden development, briefly wondering if the two had banded together intentionally or purely out of convenience. Only time would tell. And maybe a few hard knocks from him too.

Naruto, honestly not knowing any better, just put his fist forward, about three steps before he was even close to hitting him, as did all his clones, while Ryu struck from around the clones that surrounded them, trying first for a heel kick to trip him up. Hayato merely raised his foot, jumped up, and then spun around with enough force to vanquish all the clones, send Naruto flying back, dodge Ryu's attack, and upon landing send the black-clad genin flying off in the other direction. All done with a single move.

"OK, not going to be easy," Ryu grunted as he got back to his feet.

"DAMNIT! Let's try that again!" Naruto screamed, already on his feet and creating more clones.

In the trees, hiding, Kasumi watched for several minutes as her teammates tried their best to complete this test, fighting their sensei as hard as they could until he finally admitted they had passed. She knew, she _knew_ that he never would. He had all but admitted it to her. Her brother, who was on the Council, who advised the Hokage on specific matters, had ordered that she not be allowed to become a shinobi. It was insulting!

Naruto was right, she realized with startling clarity. No one, not even her brother, though he may even be the head of her clan, _no one_ had the right to deny her what she wanted to do with her own life, especially becoming a shinobi!

Steeling her resolve, she palmed several weapons and awaited her opportunity.

It came sooner than she thought as the combination of Ryu and Naruto and his clones attacks got their sensei to turn around so that his back was facing her current position. Seeing that the window of opportunity would not last for long, she did not hesitate to throw the full spread of shuriken she'd palmed followed immediately by three senbon needles, those targeted for specific points on his body rather than just at the man.

Dodging another flying tackle/punch from the kid in orange, Hayato's senses warned him of danger. He didn't have time or opportunity to make the seals for the _shunshin no jutsu_, or Body Flash Technique. Since that required a couple moments to gather chakra and complete the technique, it meant he couldn't use it to avoid all damage here, so he did the next best thing. He jumped up really really high.

Ryu saw him leaping and tried to either stop him or follow after, but the jounin's power was too great and the black clad ninja couldn't quite keep up.

Naruto, on the other hand, had a different idea. Drafting two of his clones, those that hadn't been taken out by Kasumi's shuriken that is, grabbed him and using all the strength they had, threw him up into the air like a catapult. Hayato saw this and smirked, preparing to strike the dumb blond down to the ground. Right until he formed that damned cross-seal and suddenly there were another twenty shadow clones shooting right at him.

Moments later they collided mid-air, Naruto leading with a punch as always and the clones throwing each other for kamikaze punches that did little more than bruise, if any damage at all.

"Don't underestimate me!" he screamed into the older man's face. He tried to throw another punch, but taijutsu wasn't exactly his specialty and Hayato easily blocked the attempt, grabbing the boy's wrist to lock it in place.

"Don't overestimate yourself," the jounin growled back, his gruff voice sounding menacing. Then he twisted around mid-air, still holding Naruto by the wrist and used his solid body as a bludgeon to get rid of all the clones before throwing him straight down to the ground at full force. If he hit, there would undoubtedly be massive internal damage, possibly permanent.

"Naruto!" Kasumi shouted, running out from her hiding place with a running leap.

She felt terrible when her ambush had backfired and she'd wound up hitting his clones instead of her actual target, for a moment fretting that she might have hit the original. Thankfully, that had not been the case and she allowed herself a brief moment of relief. Right up until Hayato had thrown the young ninja towards the ground from a very considerable height. Even now, the jounin was only beginning to fall back to the Earth.

Acting rather impulsively for one such as her, she ran full tilt and judging the trajectory, she leapt as high as she possibly could, aiming for Naruto's falling body and where he would soon be, in hopes of catching him before he hit and possibly died. Just as she jumped, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryu do the exact same thing, seemingly acting in perfect concert with her.

It was odd, as they both caught their teammate together, and Naruto, almost like he knew they were there, twisted himself around suddenly and they grabbed each other's arms to arrest the other's movement and better absorb the energy from Naruto's rapid descent. During that moment when their hands clasped, all three met the others eyes and something insubstantial, yet immensely profound seemed to pass through them.

Using quite a bit of acrobatics, they managed to all land on their feet without any broken bones and injuries more serious than a very mild case of muscle strain. They turned as one to face their opponent.

"Impressive," Hayato had to admit. "Not really worth anything, but it was impressive. Maybe you three could join a circus after this as I have told you, you aren't going to be ninja any time soon."

"N-n-Naruto, I-I... I'm sorry, about..." Kasumi tried to apologize as she felt this was all her fault.

He glared at her and held up his hand to stop her from saying any more.

"Hayato-sensei already told me, he wasn't talking about me earlier. Your brother is trying to protect you, at least that's what he told Hayato-sensei, by keeping you from becoming a ninja," Naruto said. "I'm not as dumb as most people think. I know being a ninja is scary. I know it's dangerous. And I know it's certainly not easy, by any means. But I _am_ going to be a ninja."

Kasumi flinched back, the look in her teammate's blue eyes filled with something she thought of only as a childhood fairy tale, something whispered about and then laughed at. Kasumi saw the Will of Fire in Naruto's eyes, and it both frightened and exhilarated her.

"I _will_ become Hokage. And no one, nothing is going to stop me from fulfilling my dream. But, that's my dream. No one can take it away from me. What you're brother is trying to do, good as his intentions are, is take your dream from you. The question is... are you going to let him?"

Kasumi gasped, stunned as she realized the 'Dead Last' was right. In more ways than one.

"If you want to be a ninja, Kasumi-chan, then you have to work for it. Nobody is just going to hand it to you and say 'Enjoy!' Believe me, I know," he said, his eyes darkening with painful memories, right before snapping back to full intensity as he stared back into hers. "If you really want to be a ninja of Konoha, you have to fight with everything you have, because otherwise it's not worth having. No matter what anyone says, your brother, Hayato-sensei, even the Hokage or me and Ryu here. If _you_ want to be a ninja, it's all up to you. No one else. So... Kasumi-hime, do you want to be a ninja?"

Ryu, who had been silent during this brief diatribe, looked back and forth between his two teammates. He wasn't exactly sure what all was going on, but he had an idea or two. He understood about Hayate-sama's overprotective big brother streak, and his objection to Kasumi-hime being put into danger by becoming a ninja, but would the man really go so far as to sabotage her chances by hiring their Jounin Sensei into intentionally failing them? He didn't like to think so.

Kasumi, on the other hand, knew exactly how far her brother and her clan were willing to go to keep her 'safe'. It chafed when she was younger, but now... now it was practically choking her. And here was this small, dumb blond boy with a fake grin and more depths than anyone could imagine, offering her the chain-cutters to free herself. It wasn't a key, a nice easy way of getting out, but it was a way out. A way to be free.

Kasumi grinned as she felt something fill her where she hadn't felt a loss before and she felt the infamous Will of Fire fill her and catch flame within her heart. She glanced at Ryu and saw him just standing there as though waiting for her to finally catch on. He and Naruto already understood what needed to be done, they'd just been waiting for her to understand. And she finally did.

"Let's do this," they all three swore together. They held out their fists and knocked them together for only a moment, right before dashing off to face their opponent once more, and pass their test to become ninja.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

(Play "Team One Kicks Butt!")

Hayato stood off to the side, silently observing this little genin powwow of theirs. He didn't really care. No genin could defeat a jounin in a real fight. In fact the whole genin test was supposed to be all about teaching the kids teamwork and the value of working together. Something which Konoha prized greatly as a Hidden Village. But then... Hayato was not here as the Jounin Sensei of some Academy Graduates. He was here on a mission, one paid by a high ranking clan and assigned by the Hokage in private, but a mission all the same. And a mission is a mission

The Council had suggested that the test he give to them was the one no one could win; the Bell Test. After all, it had worked at keeping Hatake Kakashi without a team for over six years now, and it was impossible for any genin to successfully steal the bells from a fully trained jounin. But Hayato's mission was more than that, so he'd changed the test. To one even harder and more impossible to defeat.

There were some _jounins_ out there that could not handle him going all out against them, so the possibility that this team could even get him to get even remotely serious about fighting them was like saying he used _Katon jutsus _(Fire Release techniques) to swat flies. In other words, this test was designed purely to break their wills and get them all, but especially Kasumi to give up and quite being ninja.

When he noticed that they finally stopped their talking and turned to face him, he smirked and recrossed his arms, displaying an air of utter contempt... even as he privately felt a rising feeling of disgust with himself.

He did not have time for self-recriminations however, as all three of them were coming in on the attack, fast. He stepped back and uncrossed his arms as Ryu lead the charge with a flying kick, Naruto only a step behind him with a straightforward flying tackle. He ducked under the kick and rolled back, jumping over the tackle, taking the time to kick the blond in the small of his back as the genin flew under him. Naruto crashed to the ground, only to explode in smoke on impact, making Hayato wary.

It came from the back, raising his opinion of the short blond loudmouth from 'less than nothing' to 'almost nothing' as the real Naruto body slammed him from the back, driving him forward through the air, where Kasumi was waiting. Moving faster than the boys had showed they could, the clan princess jumped up and lashed out with her long legs, catching the off-guard Hayato in the head and knocking him back to the ground. He caught himself as he landed and kicked off into a three-point landing.

Smirking at them beneath his headband, Hayato chuckled.

Finally, he spoke to them, "Took you long enough. I thought I'd have to play with you guys all day, pretending to be your practice dummy while you took potshots. Seems you've got the skills. Let's put them to the test!"

In a flash of high-speed movement, he charged straight for their grouping as they just stood there, staring in shock. Until the last possible second as Ryu back flipped into a handstand and pushed himself away, Kasumi ducking the other way and leaping to get further distance. Naruto, however, did the exact opposite, and charged right back.

Surprised, although that's more like saying one is surprised the sun is shining because it's daytime, for only a moment, Hayato realized that whether intentional or not, the loudmouth's actions would force him to deal with him first before he could go after the boy's teammates. Of course, that's only a good idea if the one doing the distracting can actually delay the enemy.

That's when Hayato was uncomfortably reminded that teams look out for each other, even for the one doing the distracting.

Just as he was moving to hit Naruto and probably take him out of the fight for good, the too-familiar whistle of flying shuriken alerted the jounin of additional danger. Glancing out of the corner of his eyes, he saw that Ryu and Kasumi had both flanked him and each thrown a full brace of shuriken at him, this time at angles where neither could hit Naruto again.

Seeing more danger in the form of the weapons, Hayato shifted his guard so that he could deflect the shuriken, which hit about half a second before Naruto did. Jounin are used to thinking fast and it was hardly taxing as Hayato deflected the more deadly flying bladed stars and then turned his attention back to the tackling genin. Only to realize too late that he probably should have taken care of him first.

Naruto never held back on anything. His timing and forms were atrocious, but he knew enough about how to throw a punch. When he attacked, be it punch, kick, tackle, or whatever, you name it, he never held anything back. He always, _always_ threw all his strength into every attack. Most wouldn't think a twelve-year-old could have that much strength, certainly not enough to do any harm to an adult ninja. But have you ever been hit by a hundred plus pound sack of cement, traveling at top human ground velocity? That's nothing to ignore, which Hayato chose to as he dealt with the shuriken first.

Naruto slammed into his Jounin Sensei's gut head and shoulder first, knowing he had to move fast if he wanted to avoid the counter-attack, and grateful to his teammate's for the assist. The blow had enough raw force behind it that Hayato had the wind knocked out of him and nearly coughed up his lunch too.

Naruto rolled back and jumped away, regrouping with the others while Hayato tried to catch his breath.

'_Damn,_' the jounin thought to himself, still coughing and wheezing from the blow, '_Kid's got a hell of a punch. Maybe I should have done the Bell Test instead? At least that way they'd be fighting each other too. Somehow though, I get the feeling they'd band together like this anyway._'

"Not bad," Hayato grunted after he stopped coughing. "Lucky shot too. Won't happen again."

This time when they tried to break, he was moving too fast and the others didn't have time to flank him before he hit Naruto upside the head, knocking him to the ground and moved on to Ryu. The kid was clearly the most advanced of them in taijutsu, and it showed as they fell into the dancing pattern of striking, blocking, defending and attacking. Hayato, however, is a jounin, while Ryu, however talented, only just graduated the Academy. Five moves later, Ryu was knocked back and kicked away.

Hayato turned to find Kasumi, only to see her leaping right at him with a high-kick combo. He leant back to avoid it, only to have to raise his guard when the single kick quickly turned into an entire combination. There are many reasons as to why the Mugen Tenshin clan is one of the most powerful clans in the Fire Nation and Konoha in particular. Their specialized taijutsu style and family martial arts being only one of them.

For starters, the early forms focus mostly on kicks and counters. And from the way Kasumi was moving her long, and surprisingly powerful, legs against him, Hayato knew that she was very proficient in her family's style. Blocking as much as he could, he was steadily being driven back, step by step and blow by blow, in order to absorb the power of her kicks.

She threw combination after combination at him, only a very brief pause between the end of one and the start of another. Neither were under any illusions however, they both knew she could not keep this up forever and it would only be a matter of time before the jounin found the opening to counter-attack.

She decided to give him that, taking a full second longer before starting in on the next combination. Hayato took immediate advantage and threw a fast punch at her face to knock her back. Instead, still using her incredible speed, she shifted her stances in an instant and grabbed his wrist, pulling on it to throw him off balance while simultaneously cocking back a kick and slamming it full force into his chest, knocking the wind out of him, all inside of the same second. Ducking under his arm, while still holding onto his wrist, she jumped up, ran up his back until she was standing on his shoulders. She wasn't even standing there a full second before she started kicking her feet down, slamming five solid bicycle kicks to his neck and shoulders, driving him to the ground from the force of each blow.

With the final kick, she put twice as much force behind it, enough that she could jump off him and back away before he could counter.

Hayato was impressed. That actually hurt, doing some damage too. He felt the bruises already forming.

Faster than she anticipated, he recovered and was on his feet, dashing towards her with his fist cocked back for a heavy blow. Just as he was in front of her and throwing his punch, she squeaked in surprise, and then Hayato's blow landed... in Naruto's gut with enough force to send the orange-clad blond flying back to where Ryu and... Kasumi?... were standing with stunned looks on their faces.

Blinking in confusion, Hayato tried to figure out what just happened. When he did, he snorted and had to raise his opinion of the demon container yet again, from 'almost nothing' to 'absolutely pathetic'. Quite a leap when you think about it.

(Pause "Team One Kicks Butt!")

A few seconds earlier, Naruto and Ryu had only just begun recovering from the single-hit beatings Hayato had given them, and watched on as Kasumi royally laid into Hayato, actually getting him to retreat! Their amazement didn't last long though, as after a killer counter where the kunoichi actually drove the jounin into the ground, he got back up almost immediately, ready with a punch that looked like it would do a lot of damage.

Naruto didn't hesitate for a second, probably because he wasn't actually thinking as his body did the five seal combination and exerted twice the necessary chakra before he even knew what he was doing. A blur of motion later, Naruto had replaced Kasumi with himself and took the full force of Hayato's punch.

Ironic that it was enough to send him careening back to where his two teammate's now stood, Kasumi with a flustered and confused look on her face. Ryu just looked confused.

"How'd you do that?" he asked as he helped Naruto to his feet.

Groaning as he felt something pop back into place where Hayato had punched him, Naruto grunted before replying, "_Kawarimi no jutsu _(Body Replacement technique). Although, I guess I might call it the _Saka-Kawarimi no jutsu _(Reverse-Replacement technique) in this case," he chuckled, before wincing and clutching his chest. Something else popped back into place, but taking it's time as it did so.

"Naruto... why? I... I don't know... what to say..." Kasumi stuttered.

Naruto shrugged, still wincing, but breathing easier now. At least nothing had been punctured, just dislocated or mildly fractured.

"You don't have to say anything," Naruto replied. "Even if I turn out to be the worst here and get sent back to the Academy, I'm not going to let this guy just roll right over us! I want to be a ninja more than anything, but I'm not about to see my teammate's get hurt just for that. We all agreed, right? We're a team."

"Hey," Ryu added his two-cents, "we might only have been a team for a few hours, and I may not know blondie here that well, but I know you well enough, Kasumi-hime, to understand what is probably going through your head right now. So don't think we're going to let you blame yourself for us being here with you. If you don't make genin, then none of us will. There's no such thing as a two-man team, no matter what they tell us. It's all or none."

"So he lied," Naruto's eyes narrowed as he glared over at their Jounin Sensei.

"More like he wants us to work alone instead of together," Kasumi surmised. "None of us can take him alone. Our only chance lies in teamwork and unit cohesion."

"Huh?" Naruto turned a confused look on her.

"We have to work together, or we won't win," Ryu translated for him. "That doesn't mean once we start working together that we'll win at all, but if we don't, we definitely won't win."

"Right," Naruto nodded his head, turning a glare back at Hayato.

"We have each done our best to strike at him individually, and even then, we have hardly done him any damage," Kasumi continued. "We need better tactics. Ways of striking at him that will allow us to keep him under constant pressure."

"He's still playing with us," Ryu growled. "He might no longer be standing still and letting us hit him, but he's not even trying to fight us."

Naruto growled himself. "Like the playground bullies," he hissed, remembering.

"More accurate than you can know, Naruto," Kasumi agreed.

"So what do we do?" he asked.

"So far, we've been facing him on an almost one-on-one basis," she answered. "Let's try something different. Naruto, make as many clones as you can. Don't attack with them, just leave them on the sidelines, so that they can support us or distract Hayato-sensei for us as needed. And... please don't try that _Saka-Kawarimi jutsu _(Reverse-Replacement technique) anymore. We need you at full strength, and getting injured taking blows meant for us doesn't do the team any good."

"Or, if you do, do it with a Shadow Clone," Ryu added.

Naruto nodded and formed the cross-seal as he pushed as much chakra as he could handle and screamed, "_TAJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_! (Multi-Shadow Clone Technique)" The 'bamf' of multiple explosions was loud and wide-spread enough, with so much smoke that it was like the fog had just rolled in that Hayato paused himself before attacking. Caution telling him that he needed to wait and see what these genins had up their sleeves.

(Play "Team One Kicks Butt!")

When the smoke cleared, even Hayato was a bit stunned at the image presented. Over a hundred Naruto's now filled the clearing, some even having appeared in the trees on branches and hidden by leaves. Hayato knew he wasn't capable of taking out over a hundred shadow clones, but at the same time, it was logistically impossible for over one hundred Naruto's to get close enough to him to attack without getting in each other's way.

That, however, did not seem to be the plan, as those closest to him actually backed away and established a perimeter of about five meters on all sides. Curious, Hayato kept his guard up, only realizing a moment later that he'd lost sight of the original Naruto as well as Kasumi and Ryu.

Meanwhile, Kasumi was outlining a basic strategy.

"We need to keep up the pressure, not give him a moment to catch his breath. We also have to keep in mind that we're running out of time. We've already been at this for almost an hour. Which means we've only got about four hours left to defeat him," she told them.

"So, what do we do?" Naruto asked, trusting her.

"Hit and run tactics. We go in as fast as we can, we hit, then we get out of there, your clones or one of the others covering for the one attacking," Kasumi explained. "Go for his weak points. Ankles, knees, neck, elbows, wrists, ribs, the back. Usually just about any joint will be a good way to disable someone. Especially the blind spots; the back of the neck, the small of the back, between the shoulder blades, or the back of the legs. Don't get caught, and don't start a sparring match with him," she said this last to Ryu.

Ryu nodded.

"We have to keep this up constantly, never let him know where or from who the next attack will come from," Kasumi continued. "So, when neither of us or you aren't attacking, Naruto, have one or two of your clones also going in and attacking when they can. And keep a few ready for Replacements if you need to."

Naruto nodded.

"Let's go," they hit fists once more and scattered.

Hayato figured out the plan pretty easy. It wasn't exactly a strategic masterpiece by any means of the imagination, but that didn't mean it wasn't a good strategy all the same. Several key factors gave the genins the advantage in the situation, most of them originating with the knucklehead loudmouth prankster.

First of all, his uncanny ability with the Shadow Clone Technique made him unique, but it also allowed two strategic advantages; in open conflict, Naruto's ability to make so many clones was both intimidating and foreboding, as unless the enemy had a considerable force themselves, or the ability to cause massive destruction with a single technique, there was no way to clear the field so to speak. The second advantage was that with so many bodies filling Hayato's view, and the circle directly around him keeping an exact measurement of spaces between him and them, sometimes standing still, sometimes running in a circle around him, sometimes moving in opposite directions, it kept him from properly seeing the original genins, allowing them to strike from hiding more effectively than any Technique or skill with stealth could provide.

Secondly, whether through design or coincidence, Hayato's current position was in the middle of the clearing, leaving him out in the open while they could come and go as they please through the mass of bodies, retreating or approaching until it was too late for him to see or sense.

Third, he had a handicap and they knew it. He could quite easily wipe out all of the nearby shadow clones, but to do so while taking into account that Uzumaki Naruto could create so many and wasn't even winded by it, even after being injured, spoke more towards the boy's abilities than he realized. Which meant in order for the boy to begin feeling the effects or even a significant drain from using the technique so many times, Hayato would have to destroy most, if not all of them almost at once and then do it a few more times. And even then, Hayato suspected the boy would only need a few _minutes_ to catch his breath before he could do it again!

Fourth, they had him pretty much surrounded, allowing for an attack to come from any direction, and he was not a Hyuuga.

Fifth and lastly, as demonstrated earlier, Uzumaki wasn't afraid to use his clones as launching platforms, giving himself and possibly the others the high ground in this, and potentially adding another dimension to this fight. Death from above and all that.

Growling to himself, Hayato almost said to heck with it all, but stopped from actually drawing his special weapon. The current situation was annoying, but using that weapon was still, by far, way too much overkill. He decided to wait and see what they would do next.

That's when it started.

At first Hayato thought it might be Naruto finally charging in with all his clones to dog pile the man, but that turned out not to be the case. Ryu emerged from behind a pair of clones, both who threw a kunai each at Hayato, forcing him to stay on the defensive while Ryu charged past, landing a solid blow to his right side, then running on back into the crowd of clones, who let him in, but maintained the space between them and Hayato. Not even a full second after Ryu disappeared, Hayato felt a powerful blow hit the small of his back.

He spun around with a counter, only a hair shy of hitting Kasumi, who was already racing back into the crowd. While he was turned that way, Hayato got a reminder of just how hard Naruto hits as the small blond slammed himself into the back of his knees and dashed back out of the way on all fours.

Grumbling, Hayato got back to his feet and said to himself, "So that's the way it's gonna be, huh?"

Before he could do any more contemplating, Naruto dashed right back out for a frontal assault. Hayato defended, only to find out a second too late that Naruto was the second-stage attack, not the first.

Ryu jumped up and twisted his body around so that he was using his whole body and used both legs to perform a whole body leg sweep on his Jounin Sensei, driving the man back to the ground. Even as he was coming back up, Naruto was still there and slammed his knee into the jounin's face, both genin disappearing back into the crowd, seconds after success.

Even as Hayato got back to his feet, seriously contemplating drawing his weapon now, Kasumi was already moving in and struck just as fast and as hard as ever. This went on for a solid fifteen minutes. Kasumi made sure they didn't repeat themselves, lest they fall into a pattern that Hayato could exploit in some way, so sometimes it was a double-team, sometimes it was one after another, sometimes all three of them got into it, but the order of who struck next always changed. A few times, Naruto even sent in clones instead of himself, and one right after the other, so that it might confuse him too.

During one of these times, the real Naruto and Ryu had ended up next to each other and were ducked down behind the clones so as to remain undetected. Ryu was taking the opportunity to catch his breath as he was not use to this constant stop and start running and high speed attacking. Naruto was also a bit out of breath, but he was grinning so he clearly wasn't tired at all.

(Stop "Team One Kicks Butt!")

"How do you think we're doing?" Ryu asked his teammate in the brief moment of silence.

"Are you kidding?" Naruto asked, keeping his voice down, "We're kicking his butt!"

"But he's still letting us. He's a jounin, and he told you about that special weapon of his. Until he pulls that out, we're no closer to beating him. Remember, we have to make _him_ take _us_ seriously!" Ryu pointed out.

"Oh yeah," Naruto grumbled. "Well... how are we supposed to do that? I've goaded the ANBU loads of times and they only ever try and capture me, not kill me. Well, as far as I know..."

Ryu observed as Naruto trailed off, but put his mind to the task of how to put enough pressure on the Jounin Sensei to make him go all out, even for a second. Or, at the very least, pull out his special weapon. Since he'd already pretty much told them about it, goading him and making derogatory remarks really won't do it as he'd be expecting that and hold back on using it just to frustrate them.

So, at this point, the only possible way would be to present enough of a threat, or annoyance, that he draws the weapon just to get rid of them. Ryu took a moment to look around them at all the shadow clones, most just standing there, waiting, tense, ready for action. He also remembered where Naruto had two of them throw him up like a catapult and how he then created a dozen more mid-air, all with the same speed and trajectory that he himself had, creating a shadow clone blitz.

Turning to the real Naruto, he asked, "Hey, why don't you have them helping us out? You've got enough of them."

"Kasumi said..." Naruto started to protest.

"Sorry, not what I meant," Ryu shook his head. "I mean, before, when you had them throw you into the air at Hayato-sensei, it was like you catapulted yourself at him, then you made a bunch more, all flying right at him. Well, with all these guys around, why not just throw one, two, or three clones at him at a time, doing the same thing, only have them like body slam him or the same thing you've been doing to him so far."

Naruto's eyes lit up as the idea appealed to him. "That would be kinda cool..." he started to say.

Ryu shrugged. "Think about it. I mean that, think about how to make it work. And remind me to show you the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique) after we're done here. It'd be scary if you _and_ your shadow clones could do that one!"

"_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu _(Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)?" Naruto questioned.

"Yeah," Ryu nodded and explained, "The _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu _(Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique) allows you to create a shadow clone image of a shuriken to attack an opponent. You can either throw a single shuriken and use the technique to create multiple shadows clones of it, or just a single shuriken and hide the other clones under its shadow. It's an A-Rank technique. I read a scroll about it and got my... well I got someone to show it to me. Still can't do it myself, but if you can do the Shadow Clone Technique..." Ryu got a thoughtful look on his face.

"What are the seals?" Naruto got excited.

"Here," Ryu then put his hands together and showed Naruto the seals while identifying them verbally. "Ram. Rat. Bird. Boar. Tiger. But you have to throw the shuriken first. Then you channel the chakra into the shuriken while it's flying and replicate its form by creating a solid chakra matrix. At least, that's the way it was explained to me."

Naruto sweat-dropped at the unfamiliar terms, but scrunched up his face in thought, incidentally all the clones immediately around them got the same look on their faces as they too thought it over.

"Hmm... So, basically, throw the shuriken as normal, while it's flying, and while you're doing the seals, send out chakra to create copies of it. Sounds easy enough! Eh... uh, what were those seals again?" he asked.

Ryu chuckled and showed Naruto the seals one more time. Then he realized that he needed to get back out there, as Kasumi and Naruto's clones had been doing most of the work for a few minutes now. In his wake, he left the real Naruto and at least fifteen of his clones sitting there practicing the hand seals over and over again. One of the clones was even taking out a shuriken, tossing it up into the air, and trying the seals, channeling chakra as he did so, letting the weapon then fall to the ground, where, unfortunately, nothing happened. Cursing, he tried again.

(Play "Shuriken Shadow Clone")

Meanwhile, Hayato was trying to thin the herd, so to speak. For the past few minutes, it had mostly been Naruto, or rather, Naruto's clones on the attack, but they'd been varying themselves. Going for his joints, his blind spots and general human weak points, a very different tactic than what he'd been doing from the start of the fight. He'd struck while he could, dispelling a clone at a time, but it wasn't making much difference.

Kasumi had snuck in a few more hits, and Hayato knew that he'd have quite a few bruises where she'd kicked him repeatedly by the end of the day. Then, Ryu came back with a vengeance, apparently having used those few minutes to rest up, and was making up for lost time by striking twice as hard and just as fast.

Growing irritated, Hayato tried once more to change his position, but the circle of clones kept up with him regardless, maintaining the open space of five meters, more or less. They were no longer just standing around either, all of them running in a constant circle and keeping in motion, and all of them, for at least two or three rows, were keeping an eye on him so as to match his movements.

Back with Naruto, he was still practicing the seals, getting progressively faster with them, always making sure he had them right before continuing on. Around him, his clones were a bit less patient as they were all already trying to channel chakra into the technique while they made the seals. One was still just tossing the shuriken up in the air, doing the seals while channeling chakra, and then watching as it fell. Another two were trying to see if horizontal flight would make a difference. A few others were trying to make shadow clones of stationary shuriken, while others just focused on learning the seals and channeling the chakra correctly. After all, it was the same as making shadow clones, right? Only with a shuriken instead of his entire body, so that should be even simpler, right?

One was even back in the forest where he created another five shadow clones, and each of them worked on target practice, throwing at imaginary targets on the trees, attempting the technique as it was originally intended, but all it resulted in was a single shuriken hitting the target. Well, sometimes hitting the target...

Finally, the one that had been tossing the shuriken up in the air felt something shift, or rather, start to form. Frowning, he concentrated harder on what he was doing, and tried one more time, channeling the chakra as tightly as he could. This time, when he tossed the shuriken into the air, there was a brief shimmer and then a flicker right before there was a small puff of smoke and a light gray dull shuriken appeared next to the real one, both succumbing to gravity and falling to the ground.

Recognizing the signs, as when he'd first learned the Shadow Clone Technique, his own clones had been similarly malformed, he felt a renewed kindling of excitement. At least this time he hadn't half exhausted himself and been burned by chakra burns. Although, he did feel he was still channeling too much chakra into the technique. He decided to concentrate harder.

About five minutes after Ryu had first suggested the technique to him, Naruto had roughly twenty to twenty five shadow clones, plus himself, working on trying to make it work. He was still aware of the ongoing fight, but about every other minute or so, the real Naruto would create another thirty shadow clones to fill in the ranks of those Hayato had managed to take out, on Kasumi's orders in fact.

The whole reason she had him create so many shadow clones was so they could use the clones to hide and attack from every angle, and if they were limited by the starting amount, then eventually Hayato could wear them down until the strategy was no longer valid. So, to keep Naruto supplying their cover and additional support, she told him to rest and conserve his energy, only creating more clones when he no longer felt winded or drained.

He'd been confused at her mentioning chakra drain, but he'd agreed and taken a breather, where Ryu had also rested for a bit. In fact, Naruto was feeling perfectly fine once more, after having sat in the grass for several minutes doing nothing but practicing the seals Ryu showed him, and creating two more groups of shadow clones to fill in the ranks. So, he probably should have gotten back into the fight, but he wanted to figure out this technique first.

After all, if they were going to win this, they would need to really put some pressure on Hayato to get him to take them seriously. And what better way than a few new techniques to pull out of their sleeves?

Plus, he still had his clones going in there to support Ryu and Kasumi as they did the hit-n-run thing, so it wasn't like he was abandoning them.

After just over ten minutes of practicing the seals, having gotten it so he could do them by just thinking of the technique in question, and complete it under three seconds too, Naruto was about to get up and start the next step, channeling chakra and practicing the technique, when he looked up and saw his clones were all at least a few steps ahead of him. In fact, every single one of them were able to create at least one shuriken shadow clone in their various methods of trying it out. They were also just as fast as he was in hand seal speed for the technique too.

Blushing in embarrassment, Naruto stood up and was about to join a few of them when he and all the clones suddenly stopped and blinked. Turning around, they saw Hayato cutting a swath through the clones, apparently heading right for him, or more likely just trying to take out as many shadow clones as he could as quickly as possible. Naruto growled and created another thirty-five clones, and together, along with all the clones that had been practicing his new technique, all bum-rushed the jounin in effort of stopping his progress.

"Don't let him near the tree line!" Kasumi shouted, right before Hayato punched his fist through the face of the nearest clone, which happened to be the one that had been tossing the shuriken up into the air and then letting it fall down.

Naruto blinked, and then he and the others turned as they heard cries coming from the tree line and at least ten more Naruto's emerged, all of them throwing shuriken in efforts of stopping the jounin's progress.

It worked, for the moment, as Hayato was forced to jump back, where the chasing clones all tried to tackle him and basically dog-piled the jounin. All of those clones shortly after exploded in white smoke as Hayato forcefully dispelled them, growling in extreme annoyance as he did so.

Naruto stepped forward out of the new crowd and formed the cross-seal, creating another ten clones, even as the ten from the forest arrived to back him up. Hayato growled, very annoyed now.

"You know, I can see why the ANBU hate you so much now, kid. You are one of the most unpredictable knuckleheads I've ever heard about. Using the same technique over and over and over again is usually a sign of weakness in a ninja. But you just keep coming up with new and interesting ways to make it keep working," Hayato chuckled.

"It's really annoying though," he growled, right before he formed a few hand seals in a blur and the next thing any of them knew, there was a flash of movement and then a whole lot of explosions as shadow clones suddenly became endangered.

"_Ninpou: Kyouhen Shunshin no jutsu_ (Ninja Arts: Flash Technique, Swift Assassination Style)," Hayato pronounced once the smoke cleared.

Naruto stood apart from Ryu and Kasumi, both who were hanging back with the last few remaining shadow clones, while their teammate stood before the jounin, coughing a bit from the smoke.

"Oh yeah," he shouted once he'd stopped coughing, "Well, let's try out my new technique and see how you like it, huh?!"

Ryu grinned, thinking that he knew exactly what 'technique' his teammate was about to pull off, but was surprised when Naruto didn't form the cross seal, instead pulling out a shuriken. Ryu's eyes went wide, thinking, '_No way... You have _GOT _to be kidding me!_'

"_SHURIKEN KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)!" Naruto shouted, then threw the shuriken at Hayato with surprising strength and accuracy, but the surprises were only just beginning as Naruto then flashed through five quick hand seals... and the single flying shuriken was suddenly _ten_ flying shuriken!

"Holy shit!" Ryu swore.

Kasumi stared, her jaw dropping in amazement.

Hayato just cursed and back flipped, dodged, and blocked or deflected as needed, being forced to retreat in the face of that many weapons. He knew the kid had learned the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone Technique) from the Forbidden Scroll a few days ago, but nobody mentioned him learning the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu _(Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)!

Having successfully dodged all but one of the flying projectiles, Hayato had to admit it, Naruto just went from 'pathetic' to 'not bad, not bad at all', which is the same level of opinion that Kasumi and Ryu were still at. Still, Hayato mused as he fingered the real shuriken, which he had caught, 'not bad' still isn't good enough.

He threw the shuriken back to it's owner, at roughly twice the speed, catching the genin off-guard, as it slammed home into the kid's upraised arm. Blood was flowing out, squirting in small jets even, right up until the shadow clone dispelled in an explosion of white smoke.

"What the...?" Hayato was definitely surprised this time.

"Holy shit!" Ryu cursed again. "Did he just do that?"

"Do what? I thought he was supposed to use the Replacement jutsu with the shadow clones still here?" Kasumi replied, a bit confused.

Ryu turned to look the kunoichi in the eye before saying back, "You don't understand. I _just showed him the seals for that technique_! I can't even do it myself yet! It's an A-Rank technique! And I just _showed him_ the _seals only_ and explained how it was supposed to work. And a _shadow clone_ pulled it off! I showed it to him like... twenty minutes ago, tops! _Twenty_ minutes!"

Kasumi's jaw dropped all over again in amazement.

Hayato, overhearing this, allowed a momentary promotion to 'impressive' in his opinion of Naruto. The tag stuck for a few more seconds as Hayato had trouble picking out the real Naruto amidst the remaining clones, entertaining the possibility the genin had even successfully hidden himself and _all_ the remaining Naruto's were clones.

It didn't last long though, as pretty soon, another group of Naruto's showed up, this one with a definite leader however, who immediately went to stand next to Kasumi and Ryu.

"So, what do you think of my new technique, sensei?" Naruto smirked, overconfident and mimicking Hayato's earlier pose by crossing his arms. "In fact, why don't we show it to you again, just so you can better appreciate how awesome a Hokage I'm going to be someday!"

With that, all the clones bore feral grins, even the ones that had been around Ryu and Kasumi all this time, and drew forth what looked like all of their supply of shuriken, right before throwing all of them in Hayato's general direction. Moments later, with a flurry of hand seals and a loud cry of, "_SHURIKEN KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)!" the air filled with flying blades of death.

After a really, really quick head-count, Ryu, Kasumi, and Hayato all determined there were roughly fifty to sixty clones, exact count coming to 57 clones plus the original, and then did some quick calculations. The average shinobi carried about ten shuriken on them as part of the standard weapons package, not counting weapon specialist, or unique weapons such as _fuuma shuriken_, or giant shuriken, and the like. Naruto seemed to carry twice that amount, and this carried over to his clones as well. So every clone in the group was pretty much guaranteed to have around twenty shuriken in his weapons pouch.

While the real Naruto stood calmly by his team, every single one of the 57 clones pulled out all twenty shuriken and then threw them in Hayato's direction, followed very shortly by them duplicating every single shuriken by a 10:1 ratio. The results of this simple mathematical equation is that in the blink of an eye, Hayato now had roughly 11,400 shuriken flying at him in a wide spread.

Hayato silently swallowed a bit heavier than normal and took a very deep breath. Naruto, in the space of an hour, had risen in rank, according to his Jounin Sensei's opinion, from an 'absolute nothing' to 'not bad' with an 'impressive' or two thrown in, and with this single technique and it's unique application, had been further upgraded to 'Dangerous'. It only lasted for a breath of a second, but to a ninja, there is no higher compliment.

"Am I awesome or what?" Naruto preened under the looks of ongoing shock his teammates were giving him, though he chose to interpret it as looks of awe rather than disbelief.

Ryu chuckled at Naruto's attitude and replied, "You're something else all right, Naruto. Something else entirely. What about that other technique I suggested you work on?"

Naruto's smirk lost some of the arrogance and took on a more serious tone as he nodded to his teammate. "Well, I wanted to make sure I understood this one first, but I figured out how to make that work too. Even worked out how to combine it with _Shuriken Kage Bunshin_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone)!"

"I look forward to seeing that," Kasumi muttered, even as she stared back and forth between Naruto and the battlefield, where his clones' shuriken were still flying against their Jounin Sensei.

Seeing that he had mere seconds to either start dodging, blocking, or wait to be a pin cushion, Hayato acted as quickly as he could. Sure that the blond brat would have even more clones in the forest behind him, Hayato decided to make his defense here, rather than continue running. After all, it was time he showed these genins exactly what they were up against.

He moved quickly, throwing down four kunai into a rough diamond around him, he then opened the extra pouch that he had on his belt and drew the object held within, which looked to be nothing more than a bladeless sword handle. He charged his chakra, then he slammed it into the ground at his feet, chakra flowing out from the central point and creating a cross between the embedded blades. He quickly flashed through about twenty seals faster than most people can blink, and then he touched the center point, shouting only, "_Raiton: Jibatate_ (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Shield)!"

Instantly, a spark leapt from his finger to the central weapon, and just as fast, the chakra paths lit up and the four other kunai ripped themselves out of the soil and pointed straight up, the blades hovering steadily at knee-height around him. Hayato stood calmly over the center point, having pocketed the object he'd pulled once the technique was complete and looked up at the oncoming storm of shadow clone shuriken.

The trio of genin stood with looks of shock as they watched their "Jounin Sensei" just stand there waiting to be impaled with over several thousand shuriken. Then the impossible happened and they were there to watch it, as just under half a meter from Hayato's head, the shuriken started going everywhere _but_ at him!

Some of them were simply changing trajectory mid-flight, others seemed to stop and then be repelled backwards, where they then encountered the other shuriken and further deflected the storm of metal blades. When finally the shuriken stopped, in an almost perfect circle, ending just half a foot outside of the still 'standing' kunai, was empty space while the rest of the area for several meters in all directions was covered with shuriken, some even cutting into each other!

"Whoa," Ryu stated, stunned.

"NO WAY! THAT'S CHEATING!" Naruto protested, loudly.

"That... was a very advanced ninjutsu," Kasumi corrected softly.

"Still not fair! I _had_ him!" he complained.

"Too bad," Hayato spoke only loud enough for them to hear him, neither shouting nor yelling, "It was a surprisingly good effort. But now this little... contest is over. I'd rather complete my mission sooner than later."

Suddenly, he blurred away, and the three genins all tensed. They still didn't see it coming.

"_Raiton: Jibasutangan_ (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Stunner)," Hayato intoned, even as he held out both hands, his wrists flashing with bluish bolts of electricity and chakra. The bolts hit all three of them equally and wiped out the last of the clones, even as it sent each of the genins flying off in a separate direction.

"YAAARRRGGGHHHH!!" Naruto grunted in overwhelming pain as he landed in a heap.

"GAAAAAHHH!" Ryu cried out as he struggled to remain conscious.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Kasumi screamed, almost passing out from electrical shock.

They all lay where they landed, smoking, in pain, and trying to move. The most any of them could accomplish was a slight twitching of their limbs, though Naruto seemed to be able to move a little be more than his teammates could at the moment.

"Don't bother trying to move," Hayato told them, still standing where he'd attacked them. "That technique is a Lightning element technique, and what it does is that it arcs out in a circle around each of my wrists. That's important because of the way lightning works, when I punch or attack someone, the lightning goes through them and then down into the earth, shocking them along the way. When I put my wrists together, like I did with you three, then the amount of energy transferred through you is about double the amount. Normally it's around three to five thousand volts of electricity. Combined, it's closer to 10,000 Volts of electricity, enough to kill a man twice over. But by arching through the air instead of metal or even water, that 10,000 is reduced back down to the 5,000 amount, which is still enough to overload every nerve in your body. This test is over and you all..."

Hayato stopped speaking as he watched the nearly impossible happen. Naruto stood up.

"This... test... is... NOT... over!" he gasped, still a little crispy around the edges and a few of his muscles were twitching still, but Hayato's words had gotten him so angry that everything turned red for a moment before he found he could move again. Naruto figured it for adrenaline.

"I... told... you... I'm... going... to... be... HOKAGE SOMEDAY!" Naruto screamed, getting another 'jolt of adrenaline' before running straight at his Jounin Sensei. Along the way, he cried out, "_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_! (Shadow Clone Technique)" and created another few dozen shadow clones to help him out.

Hayato was as close to 'stunned' as he'd ever been. Even when he was a genin himself, there wasn't exactly a lot that could throw him. Scare him, terrify him, and outright make him want to retreat yes. But there wasn't much that could surprise him so badly that he was incapable of processing it. Seeing a fresh Academy Graduate use a jounin-level technique and the S-Class version of it as well, was pretty surprising, but he'd been told about it beforehand by the Hokage himself even. Seeing a twelve-year-old boy stand up after taking one of his own Raiton jutsus head on, and then still be able to move, let alone attack and use jutsu so quickly, was something else entirely.

Still, Hayato merely stared for all of three seconds before vanishing in a blur once more, followed almost instantly by a large number of pops and smoke filling the battlefield as all of Naruto's clones were forcefully dispelled yet again. How much chakra did this kid even have?

(Stop "Shuriken Shadow Clone")

Once the smoke had finally cleared, Hayato was mildly surprised to see that he was the only one in the clearing. "Impressive," he commented as he realized that the Naruto kid had used the clones as nothing more than a distraction so that he could retrieve his teammates from the battlefield and allow them time to recuperate. That alone would have passed this team. In normal circumstances.

Back in the woods, by the trees where his clones had been practicing their shuriken throwing, Naruto and two of his clones lay down the nearly-passed-out Kasumi and Ryu down against the tree trunks. With a nod, the two clones leapt up into the canopy, creating another ten clones each and spreading them around so they could spot Hayato approaching from almost any direction. Naruto wasn't sure why he had been less affected by the Jounin Sensei's technique than his teammates, but he knew they needed just a little more time to get past the effects. Besides, they trusted him, Ryu taught him a new technique, however indirectly, and Kasumi needed his help as much as he needed theirs.

Naruto was nobody's fool. He _knew_ that he couldn't beat Hayato by himself, the fight so far was proof enough right there. In fact, the only times they'd ever made the jounin go on the defensive was when they worked together and attacked him all at once. As a team.

He wondered if any other ninja might be begging Hayato for a chance to become a genin by this point, even handing Kasumi up on a silver platter, so to speak. Mizuki-teme might have done something like that, and that right there was all the reason Naruto needed to _never_ do _anything_ like that!

Ryu groaned, starting to come around.

"Hey, Ryu, you OK?" Naruto asked once his comrade was sitting up.

"Not... really," the black-clad ninja muttered. "Feels like my muscles have all turned to jelly. Can hardly move. Where...? How did you get us out of there?"

Naruto shrugged, then pointed up, where Ryu saw a few shadow clones keeping a lookout. "Oh. You can still make shadow clones?" He nodded. "Whoa. How much chakra do you have? Never mind. How's Kasumi-hime doing?"

At that precise moment, the kunoichi gave a soft moan before slowly opening her eyes and looking around. "What happened?" she asked them.

"Hayato-sensei used some kind of ninjutsu on us," Naruto supplied the answer.

"And apparently Naruto has enough chakra left over that he created enough clones to get us away from the fight," Ryu added. "Whose to say how long until he finds again and finishes us off."

"C'mon guys," Naruto whined, seeing his teammates suddenly looked dejected. "We can take him! I know we can! We almost had him, if he hadn't pulled out that technique of his, I woulda made a pincushion outta him! Not to mention it was working! Kasumi-chan's plan to beat him, it was working! Now we just need to beat him, right?"

Kasumi and Ryu looked down, both feeling the weight of failure settle on them.

"Look," Naruto scowled, not willing to let this stop him, "we have until sunset, right? We can still do this. We can beat him! I know we can! I'm going to be Hokage and _nothing_ is going to stop me, especially not some bully out to hurt Kasumi-chan!"

Blinking, the chestnut-haired kunoichi looked up, stunned.

Ryu also looked up, a bit of the fire coming back into his eyes.

"He's right," Ryu stated, drawing the looks of his teammates. "We can't just give up. There's no guarantee of second chances, and to Hayato-sensei, this is a mission given to him by the Council and Hokage directly. We have to get him to fight us seriously, and if we give up just as we get him to do that, then we don't deserve to be ninja in the first place. So I'm not going to give up. No matter what."

Kasumi slowly nodded.

"No matter what, we don't give up," Naruto agreed. He struck his fist out in front of them. "We fight with everything we have. We fight for every single second that we have. We fight until we beat him. We don't give up. We never give up."

"Never give up," Ryu stated, slamming his fist into Naruto's and keeping it there.

Seeing how her teammates were leaning, Kasumi nodded firmly, and punched out with her own fist, connecting with theirs. "No matter what. We will become shinobi!"

(Play "Team One Strikes!")

"Well, you could start by learning the first lesson of ninja and embracing silence and stealth," a voice called out from behind them.

"Shit!" Ryu cursed, leaping to his feet, only to stumble and almost fall back down. Thankfully, Naruto caught him, but they were more or less sitting ducks as they all turned to see Hayato standing there on a high tree branch, arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_! (Shadow Clone Technique)" Naruto screamed the technique name as he almost threw clones out and putting them between his teammates and their opponent.

"Now would be a good time to try out that other technique I suggested, Naruto," Ryu grunted as he and the blond helped Kasumi to her feet and they all beat feet.

"I already did," Naruto growled back, "It didn't work!"

"No, throwing shadow clones at him. Literally," Ryu clarified.

"Oh yeah, that!"

"We need to get back to the clearing," Kasumi told them. "He can attack us from any direction here, and spamming him with shadow clones won't do us much good if they hit the trees more than they hit him."

"Then hang on!" Naruto told them before forming three more shadow clones, then having them grab both of them by the arms. A quick wind-up, before they could say anything, all three members of Team One were airborne and flying through the trees back to the clearing of the training area.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIIIIIIIIIIIIII—ND!?!!" Kasumi screamed as she fell through the air.

"OK, this is kinda cool," Ryu said to Naruto, still mid-air with them.

When they finally topped their arch and started their descent, they had actually crested the canopy of leaves of the massive trees surrounding them. They could also see the clearing and it was pretty clear that they would be landing near the center. Provided they landed and didn't just fall to their deaths.

"Uh... I don't think I thought this through very well," Naruto mumbled as they began to fall.

"YOU THINK!!" Kasumi screamed.

After about five more seconds of falling to their potential deaths, Ryu suddenly shouted, "Quick! Naruto! Make more clones! But on the ground, then let's use Kawarimi!"

"You mean Saka-Kawarimi," Naruto corrected.

"WHATEVER!!" both Ryu and Kasumi screamed at him.

"Fine," he grumbled, making the seal and in a puff of smoke, three clones appeared fifteen feet below them, which only put the clones a couple of feet off the ground and they landed just fine. A few seals from the trio in the air later, and those clones were suddenly the ones falling while the three real-bodied ninjas were safely on the ground.

"Hey, I never realized shadow clones could be so useful! This technique ROCKS!" Naruto exclaimed once they were safely on the ground.

"And that's why you're not a very good ninja," Hayato commented. They spun around, each dropping into defensive stances.

"Y'know, that's starting to get really annoying," Ryu huffed.

"What? Him using the same technique over and over and over again?" the jounin dryly remarked.

"No," Ryu snarled, "You. Sneaking up on us and getting behind us all the time like that!"

"Too bad. You three might have figured out the whole teamwork riddle, but that doesn't matter. You still haven't passed my test. And you never will," he told them. After a moment, he started making seals and instantly the three genin broke apart and dashed off into different directions.

"_Tajū_ _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_! (Multi-Shadow Clone Technique)" Naruto created about fifty more clones, then he cried out, "Hey Ryu! Check this out. Even figured out a name for it already! GO!"

Instantly the fifty clones were cut to one-third of their number as the first third were thrown directly at Hayato by the other two thirds and then the next group were tossed as high into the air as they could be thrown, while the remaining third surrounded the jounin and prepared to just run in and take advantage of any openings they could get.

"_NINPOU_: _KAGE BUNSHIN nanseihokubatsu_! (Ninja Arts: Shadow Clone Blitz)" Naruto and the clones all cried out as one.

Hayato was forced to abandon finishing his technique as he suddenly had full-force flying Naruto's coming at him from all sides. It certainly didn't help when the ones thrown up in the air decided to use the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone technique) once more, adding another element to the newly coined attack.

With sure, decisive punches, Hayato worked to dispel the clones before they hit, but he still got hit by those that made it through his defense. Not to mention dodging the falling shrapnel that could kill him if he wasn't careful. The worst part of this new technique was that it came from all sides all at once and it _didn't stop_! In the back of his mind, however, he privately upgraded Naruto's threat level from a D-Rank mission not worth his time, to at the very most an extremely low C-Rank that was bringing out quite a few surprises.

"Oh that is awesome," Ryu had to say as he and Kasumi retreated to near the tree line.

"This... this isn't right," she said to him.

"Huh? What do you mean, Kasumi-hime?" he asked.

"Naruto is the one that is in the thick of this-this test! He's the one using all the ninja techniques, he even learned two new ones right before our eyes and he's the one that has allowed us to keep a jounin on the defensive for this long. It's not fair to keep pushing Naruto to the front like this!" protested Kasumi.

"Well, keep in mind that the last time we made him go on the offensive, all three of us got the worst of it, but Naruto..." Ryu argued.

"But Naruto got us out of there and more or less saved us," she interrupted him. "We need to be doing more! We can't just hang back and let Naruto do all the heavy lifting. We're supposed to be a TEAM for Kami's sake! We need to start behaving like one!"

Ryu was silent, but she could tell he agreed with her words.

"What techniques do you know?" Kasumi asked.

Ryu blinked, surprised.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he replied defensively.

"Because you showed Naruto, intentionally or not, how to do the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone technique)," she pointed out. "Now for you to know that, you'd have to have been training in more than just the Academy-taught ninjutsus. So what else do you know, and can use in a fight?"

They were interrupted when Hayato yet again pulled a trick out of his hat, apparently taking a page out of Naruto's book, as he switched himself with one of the still-in-the-air clones to put himself where he needed to be and then finished his earlier technique.

"_Raiton: Rakurai_ (Lightning Release: Chain Lightning)!" he called out even as he held out sparking wrists that once again lanced out to the nearest bodies. The difference being here that it didn't stop at the nearest bodies, but struck one clone, then lanced out to the next, and then the next, and the next, and the next, until finally the bolts of chakra-created electricity reached those on the ground and thus grounded the energy, causing more than enough damage to get rid of all the clones at once.

"Damnit!" Naruto cursed as he ran around and created another batch of clones. These did not attack, however, instead running around randomly, most just circling the jounin's position, even as he landed softly on his feet after a thirty-foot fall. Some of the clones, along with the original, ran in Ryu and Kasumi's direction.

Seeing this, Kasumi made some hand-signs, which Naruto thankfully noticed, and she, Ryu, Naruto and the clones with him all leapt up into the trees after throwing down a few smoke bombs, immediately masking their presence to the best of each owns ability. The three genins just happened to choose the same hiding spot so they could strategize.

(Pause "Team One Strikes!")

"This isn't working," Ryu said.

"We can still beat him!" Naruto insisted, but quietly.

"Using shadow clones as cover won't work anymore," Kasumi whispered, almost thinking out loud. "We need to work out a different strategy. Naruto, besides the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone Technique), and the Academy basics, what other techniques do you know?"

"Uh... well, Ryu just showed me the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)..." the blond blushed, scratching the back of his neck, almost in embarrassment.

"Ryu? You never answered my question the first time," Kasumi looked to the black-clad ninja.

He seemed almost reluctant, but finally he just nodded and answered, "All of the Academy basics, three different styles of taijutsu, a few _Katon_ ninjutsus, _Konoha Shunshin no jutsu_, and some wire techniques. Now what about you, Kasumi?"

Ignoring the slight against her name, she immediately answered, "The Academy basics, my family's taijutsu style, and a few chakra control exercises."

"You're kidding," Ryu deadpanned. "You get me to tell you all the techniques that I know and can do, something that a ninja _never_ gives up unless they're desperate, and all you have to offer in return is that you know nothing except what your clan taught you?!"

"What's a chakra control exercise?" Naruto asked. "And hey! Kasumi figured out our last plan, let her have a chance!"

"Quiet!" Kasumi hissed. "And for the record, I know all the Academy taught techniques, water-walking, tree-climbing, and leaf-floating. And I may have a few taijutsu techniques that might be of use."

"So," Ryu sighed, letting go of his anger, "what's the plan? Go all out against him?"

"That wouldn't do much for long," Kasumi shook her head. "He's adapted to everything we've thrown at him, and now he's started using ninjutsus. What about when he finally pulls out that weapon he told Naruto about? At this rate, we won't stand a chance."

"Guys!" Naruto tried to interrupt.

"We need to move," Ryu said suddenly, immediately grabbing both of them and throwing them off the tree, flashing away himself in the same move.

Several meters away, they regrouped. They all crouched down behind some bushes, still maintaining as much stealth as they could. Not even a leaf rustled as they settled in and even the surrounding wildlife remained unchanged.

"OK, what was that about?" Naruto asked, confused out of his mind.

"Hayato-sensei found us," was all Ryu said.

"How could you tell?" Naruto asked.

"I'll show you how to do it one day. When we're not being hunted by our sensei," he glared.

"Oh, right," Naruto blushed.

"There's nothing we can do," Kasumi almost moaned in despair. "That right there just goes to prove it, Hayato-sensei just too tough an opponent. No matter what we throw at him, or which direction we come from, there's no way we can beat a jounin!"

"Shh!" Ryu and Naruto both shushed her.

"Come on, Kasumi-chan," Naruto almost begged. "If we do our best, if we stick together, we can beat him. You said it before yourself. Never give up. Come on, never give up!"

"Kasumi... I'm sorry for ragging on you earlier, but I don't like sharing all my secrets all at once," Ryu said to her. "Guess I still haven't learned that whole teamwork lesson yet, huh? Well, I'm with Naruto, and I'm not gonna give up. But we won't stand a chance unless you're out there with us."

"Naruto may be able to create an army with ease, but that doesn't matter a thing if the person that we're both fighting for, won't fight for herself," Ryu accused. "Hayato openly admitted it. The Council, your _brother_ hired him to be assigned as your Jounin Sensei, all so he could break your spirit and send you crying from the Shinobi program. Well, sending you home crying means sending the two of us back to the Academy for _remedial training_. And I think it's safe to say that I speak for Naruto and myself when I say that we really don't want to go back to the Academy. Again."

"So," he grabbed her face and forced her to look them both in the eye, her brown eyes welling up with tears, "if you're not going to fight for yourself... fight for us."

"And I'll fight for you, and Ryu-baka here," Naruto added with a wide grin.

"I'll fight for you and the dobe too," Ryu followed that up with a smack to the back of the blond's head.

"Guys... I..." she was suddenly choked up. Then her eyes hardened as she considered exactly what it was they were asking of her, and what her brother, the Council and Hayato were all doing. It wasn't fair, not only to her, but to her teammates. And _that_ was something she would _not_ stand for!

"We attack him from all sides, don't let up, use every technique you can, keep an eye on each other, and be ready to pull each other out of danger if you see something about to happen," Kasumi ordered, the fire lit up in her eyes even brighter than before. "And if this works," she paused, giving each of them a meaningful look, "we'll call this our _Buntai no jutsu: Ikko Dageki_ (Team Technique: Team One Strikes)!"

"Break!" Ryu warned and they all flashed away.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

(Play "Team One Strikes!")

Hayato watched from his own hiding spot as each of the potential genins split up and did their best to mask their presence and hide. Of course he found them all immediately, though one stood out more than the others. _Naruto_, again, because instead of hiding, the boy seemed to be on the lookout for himself, searching out their opponent.

'_Suddenly this is starting to look like a lopsided team, with those two depending on the unpredictable knucklehead. As... surprising as this all has been, I'm getting bored. Time to end this,_' the jounin thought.

He smirked before flashing away, angling himself to intercept Kasumi at her hiding spot. She was, after all, the primary target of his mission here.

Almost as though they sensed this, he noticed how Naruto and Ryu both changed their own trajectories to intercept on him. Too bad they'd never...

Ducking down suddenly and twisting mid-air while leaping between two distant trees, Hayato cursed under his breath, even as he arched his body to rotate out of the way a second time, dodging first Naruto and then Ryu as they were catapulted on a ballistic course. That Naruto kid sure was getting fond of having his clones throw people around.

"No holding back now!" Ryu shouted to Naruto as he landed against a tree and immediately jumped off it, angling in on Hayato's back.

"RIGHT!" Naruto shouted back, going full out and spamming the forest with shadow clones yet again.

Kasumi, having heard the shouts, turned around to see Hayato aiming for her as Naruto and Ryu desperately chased after. Frowning in anger, she increased her speed and angled back for the central clearing of the training area, making sure to put as many branches and tree trunks in her sensei's path as possible

Ryu, seeing this, and having known Kasumi since they were both small children, had an idea of what it was she was thinking, but at the same time that Kasumi was an expert at thinking things through, she didn't have a very vivid imagination when it came to possible ways of making it work. Jumping up into the trees to get a better view, Ryu began to think of ways he could help Kasumi out and give them the advantage in this fight. While he was more of a 'doer' and preferred action, he could see the advantage of having a plan, and they desperately needed one right now!

Naruto, still chasing along as fast as he could move along the ground while directing his clones continued harassment of the jounin, had only three thoughts running through his head. First and foremost, he was _SO going to kick __**Hayato-sensei's ASS!!**_ Second, he _had_ to protect Kasumi and watch his teammates backs! Third and lastly, he was remembering the times that he lead ANBU on a chase through all of the training grounds around Konoha, as well as when he just hung out after school, trying to relieve boredom. He'd visited Training Area 11 lots of times and during those chases, he sometimes managed to find nifty little ways of getting around the areas faster than the adults could, despite said adults being _much_ faster than he was in a flat-out race.

So, when Naruto saw them coming up on a cluster of sycamores, he knew that the tight spaces between the branches left a very obvious path to follow, which sort of zigzagged and ate up a solid ten seconds of running time. He also knew of about five other ways of both circumventing that path and even shaving ten seconds down if those trees weren't there in the first place. He decided to take all of them.

Forming a cross-seal once more, Naruto himself took the shortest and fastest, despite it being the craziest route that ended at this really big tree that had a trunk over thirty feet tall before the lowest branches even started, which were equally big.

Ryu, looking down from above and cutting his time by putting more power in his jumps between branches, soon saw an opportunity, as the route Kasumi was currently on would take her through a copse of trees that ended against the surprisingly tall trunk of a big tree. If he could somehow get a signal to Kasumi without letting Hayato know, they _might_ be able to catch him by surprise and blindside him somehow.

Smirking to himself as he figured out exactly how to do that, he even had the perfect technique to help them out in pulling it off. Unfortunately it took a heck of a lot of chakra to do, and he wasn't Naruto, so he had to make sure that he didn't miss.

In effort to throw off their sensei's senses, on his next jump, he intentionally released a large amount of chakra, as though building it up in order to catch up faster. After that initial burst, however, while he no longer tried to hide it as he might have done, he began to gather the necessary chakra for the technique to work, in hopes of saving precious time when they were all in position. He did start moving faster and jumping harder too, but for the icing on the cake, he threw a kunai right at the jounin's head.

Of course, he only glanced in Ryu's direction before deflecting the projectile with his gauntlet and doubling his own pace so that he began to really gain on the kunoichi now. Ryu cursed.

Kasumi was just short of panicking. Maybe she really wasn't cut out to be a ninja, maybe she should just stay at home and practice being the perfect clan head, or... or maybe even the perfect wife to a clan head...

Kasumi's eyes hardened and her steps increased in pace and her stride was more sure.

Yeah, so what if she was having trouble with this test? So what if her brother, Kami bless his soul, had hired her Jounin Sensei to make sure she never became a shinobi? So what if the entire Council and Hokage were in on it? _So_ _what_ if she was just running as fast as she could without any idea or plan on what to do next, or how to even win this fight! _So what_ if she had a jounin that had some kind of super ninja weapon chasing her! _So what_ if her only teammates were the Academy's "Dead Last" and Hayabusa "I Will Be The Strongest" Ryu! They were her teammates and they were counting on her! She was _Tenshin Kasumi_ of the Mugen Tenshin clan of Konoha! And if anything could be said about a Tenshin, they were loyal to a fault!

Seeing the path the trees gave her opening up ahead, she decided to throw her pursuer off just a bit and pulled out a kunai for each hand. The everyman ninja tool wasn't her favorite, preferring the more easy to handle and far more accurate senbon needle, but they could also cut through branches just fine.

Passing between a pair of close-together trees, she sliced one of her kunai through the lowest branch, not slowing her down, but as it fell it would block the path for a precious few seconds. Seeing another opportunity, she sliced another branch apart and then another three after that, creating full blockades without breaking through the branches entirely. She had to make a couple odd turns herself so she wouldn't lose time, but she did hear Hayato following her and grunting as he came across her delays. Seeing opportunity for one last big one that might even get her home free, she threw both her kunai together with enough force that they tore through the right branch and sent it crashing to the earth... only a hairsbreadth behind her as she dived forward out of the cluster of trees.

She knew she didn't exactly have the time to sit and take deep breaths, and she was on her feet before she even had time to feel the dirt. A crunching crash from right behind her had her heart jumping up into her throat as she spun around between steps, and unfortunately tripped, but gathered her footing before falling. It did have the unfortunate side-effect, however, of making her stop running.

Not that it would make much difference as Hayato was only ten feet in front of her. For a ninja, that might as well be right in her face.

"Well, I must hand it to you," Hayato mocked her in his gruff voice, crossing his arms with a smirk, "your evasion skills are top-notch. For a genin. Shame."

Seeing something behind him in the distance, Kasumi kept her eyes locked on the jounin, pulling out a handful of senbon and readying herself. "Yes, it is. That we cannot talk you out of this action. And, that we have to kick your ass so hard!"

She threw her weapons with full force and calculated accuracy, using the motion to spin her around and she ran right for the large tree directly behind her. Hayato was silent, save for the clangs as he used his metal reinforced gauntlets to deflect or block the slim throwing needles, resuming the chase at his standard pace. He might have thought he was starting to get old if this young girl could outrun him, until he recalled that part of the Mugen Tenshin style of taijutsu was the emphasis on kicking power, which meant a lot of running and just plain strengthening the legs.

At this distance though, whatever lead she got for herself wouldn't do much good as he caught up in an instant. He figured she was heading back for the clearing, to get more room, maybe even bring in some of Naruto's clones to help her out. Oddly enough, he noted that instead of angling around the big tree in front of them, she was running right for it. That's about when he felt the chakra spike from right behind him.

He watched with half an eye as Kasumi ran up the tree trunk, clearly using the Tree-Climbing technique in this case, while the rest of his attention turned to the genin behind him. Ryu had just finished a series of hand seals ending, Hayato noticed, with the Tiger seal. Fire ninjutsu!

"_Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu_ (Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique)!" Ryu cried, even as he finished drawing a deep breath and then letting it go in a giant stream of orange-red flames, the head expanding to look exactly like a dragon!

Hayato cursed and crossed his arms in front of his face the moment the technique hit him, driving him back to the tree trunk. The impact, and continuing flames rocked the tree so badly that Kasumi felt her tenuous hold on the trunk begin to falter. Knowing that she couldn't count on going any higher or continuing the technique past this point, she decided to take a chance and go for it!

Taking only one more step up, she used it to kick off and launch herself from the vertical platform, sending her flying back, mere inches from the top of the fire technique that still continued to hammer their Jounin Sensei. She really hoped that it ended soon, as she felt gravity begin to take hold.

During the second that this happened, Naruto saw it all, processed it, and was already in action.

Two Naruto's, both clones most likely, swung down from opposite trees, getting just close enough that they could grab Kasumi by the shoulders and hips and send her higher into the air, where another Naruto, the real one, caught her and pulled her onto the branch of the tree he was standing on.

Ryu silently cursed himself and praised Naruto to Kami Himself as he watched all this happen. He'd only learned the technique a month ago, able to do it without flaw a week before the Academy Exams, and hadn't had as much time to practice it unfortunately. He was able to keep the technique going for about six seconds at full blast, and he knew that he would need every bit of it to do any damage to Hayato at all!

The excuse about not practicing came in that he couldn't shut it off until the technique completed, even if he wanted to, he was locked into action until the chakra he'd gathered was expired. He was just glad that it didn't take more, because if this hadn't worked, he would've been in big trouble. As it was, he hoped that Naruto had more than just a last second rescue up his sleeve.

Hayato had been under his share of fire. Figuratively and literally. Ryu could make it pretty hot, and he had to admit, he was caught by surprise, but jounins don't become jounins by letting surprise get the best of them. He didn't have time for a technique or anything, so he just endured, focusing all of his chakra, _all_ of it, into protecting him from the heat and the flames.

Ryu could certainly make it hot, but Ryu was still only a genin, and thankfully he only had to endure for a few seconds instead of several minutes! When the flames finally died down and the technique ended, Hayato quickly pulled his chakra back under control and looked himself over. Other than some soot marks and a little smoldering and feeling like all of his clothes, especially his boots and his gauntlets, had come hot out of the drier, he didn't see himself as injured in the slightest.

Oh sure, he'd had to use a surprising amount of chakra to survive, but it wasn't like he was facing another jounin here.

That's about when Naruto reminded him that a _team_ of genin still sometimes gets lucky, and with the blond, you really can't predict what will happen next.

"_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)!" several voices cried out at once as about six clones revealed themselves from the surrounding foliage.

Hayato only had time to react, first with a Replacement technique, then physically as the clones found him immediately, almost like they knew exactly where he would arrive. That was supposed to be his shtick in this test!

Thankfully, it was close quarters, so, the clones didn't try any more Shuriken techniques, but that didn't mean they weren't up to making 'suicide runs' and more or less dog-piling him, while still going for his basic weak spots, showing that the genin could learn at the very least. He did his best in dispelling them before they could reach him, but they were adapting. Going low and then rising up for a brutal headbut to the torso, or twisting around his fist to punch at his armpit or elbow joint, always hitting with enough force that they ended up dispelling themselves anyway. It still left bruising and reminded Hayato how sore he was getting.

Finally, all of the clones seemed to have vanished, and Hayato took a moment to let out a gasp and catch his breath. If nothing else, Naruto could certainly help in training for fighting multiple opponents at once... Uh, not that the kid would get a chance as he wasn't allowed to pass them anyway! Right?

He was distracted from this internal musing as Kasumi and Naruto landed on either side of Ryu, who was still recovering slightly from pulling off his high level technique. Together, the three genin looked at each other, then at Hayato, before sharing one last look and readying themselves.

"Ready?" Kasumi cried out.

"READY!" Naruto and Ryu both shouted back, the latter looking re-energized.

"_Buntai no jutsu: Taijutsu: Ikko Dageki_ (Team Technique Taijutsu Team One Strike)!" they all shouted.

Hayato didn't really know what the hell that meant or what it was supposed to do, as they all pretty much just bum-rushed him. At least that's what he figured. Right up until they actually started.

Kasumi was the first to strike, moving in with rapid blows to his torso, all of which he managed to block with his arms. Unfortunately, this distracted him from Ryu coming up along his left side and sweeping his legs out from under him just as Kasumi switched from punches to kicks, and landed one against his ribs with enough force to send him flying back against the tree. At least he would have, if Naruto hadn't been standing there waiting and the moment the jounin was close enough, the smaller genin slammed an uppercut against the small of Hayato's back, full force as always.

He felt it, but he'd been hit harder, and that wasn't what had Hayato so worried, because the blow sent him flying up into the air. Twisting himself around, Hayato sought some sort of purchase so he could gain control of his momentum. There was nothing.

Which left him completely open for another five seconds, more than long enough for Ryu to come up underneath him and leap up with an upper cut of his own, shouting as he performed the high level taijutsu move, "_Shoryuken_!"

Ryu twisted mid-air after his rising uppercut had sent Hayato even higher, slowing his descent enough that he could boost Kasumi's own leap as she jumped up to make her own attack. She inverted her body and split her legs wide, and then began to spin, bringing her closer to the mid-air Hayato. Just as she got within range, she exclaimed, "_Spinning Bird Kick_!"

What followed, Hayato would remember for a long time, as the young girl's long legs kicked him hard enough to send him even higher into the air, only spinning now, and then she managed to land another six hits, all with a single move!

Spinning freely now, and thoroughly bruised, Hayato was still reaching for any kind of purchase at all, he was certainly high enough now, which is right about when he caught sight of what was waiting for him at this height.

"... Shit," he cursed, as he already knew what was coming next.

"_Kage Bunshin Nanseihokubatsu_! (Shadow Clone Blitz)" all of the Naruto's cried at once, even as more than half of them were thrown through the air to impact with enough force to break bones. Hayato did his best to defend, using the clones themselves to control his fall, but they were moving fast enough that he couldn't do that very often, or for very long as they dispelled just after impact. Unfortunately, a few did get through, but only glancing blows so nothing was a direct hit. He did get a lot more bruises though.

Naruto himself jumped high into the air, high above the falling jounin. Forming the cross-seal, he focused his chakra and his intent as two clones formed on either side of him. Grabbing each other's arms, they reeled back and the next thing Naruto was aware of, he was moving faster than he'd ever been able to do on his own, straight for Hayato, who was facing the ground and the last of the Shadow Clone Blitz. He did sense something though, so as the last of the immediate threats were taken care of, he twisted in the air again, and only had enough time to blink in surprise, right before the real Naruto crashed into his gut.

Naruto liked to vary himself, just so his opponents would remember him if not for the fact that he didn't really have much professional taijutsu training. So, he started with a headbut to the gut, followed by half a dozen punches and right around the time they were less than ten feet from the ground, he threw in a bicycle kick to drive the jounin into the ground faster, and to allow him to jump away before impact.

A massive dust cloud erupted as Hayato crashed into the forest floor, blocking the view for a few seconds, but the genin were feeling pretty good about themselves at that moment, as they had managed to actually land some solid hits on their Jounin Sensei. Even if it was only because they'd caught him at a weak moment and caught him by surprise. But hey, that's what ninja are supposed to do!

(Stop "Team One Strikes Back!")

The dust cloud slowly settled, and despite whatever they had been expecting, they were all shocked when they heard Hayato's deep chuckle echoing from within the remains of the smokescreen.

"Not bad," they heard him say, "Not bad at all. Pretty good in fact."

The dust finally dissipated and they saw the tall jounin standing there, bruised, battered, and even still smoldering a little, but smirking at them as always. "You've demonstrated teamwork, a versatile knowledge of ninjutsu, and adequate stealth and taijutsu skills. At the very least, you have taken advantage of my taking it easy on you and not only landed a hit on me, but injured me, however minor that injury may be. Anyone else would take you as genin right here and now. Sadly, fun as it might be, we don't have that option. I've been given a mission. So you've just been wasting your time."

"Like hell we have!" Naruto growled.

"If that truly were the case, you wouldn't have even let us try in the first place, and my brother would have paid just to have you show up, give us an impossible task with a much shorter time limit, and failed us within the first hour," Kasumi agreed. "By letting us take it this far, it showed that you really are testing us, and we have until sundown to prove ourselves to you."

"Maybe I was just bored," he commented.

"If that were the case, why give us till sundown? Why not just an hour or two?" Ryu challenged.

Hayato looked out over to the western horizon, then smirked.

"Well then, perhaps we'd better hurry this along," Hayato said. "I estimate you only have about an hour or so left, maybe a little more. And I really don't want to take anymore of those hits, I'm going to be black and blue enough as it is. So..." he reached down to the unique holster at his waist. He opened that cover and slowly pulled out what looked to be an ornate katana hilt.

It was an off-white color for the most part, except the base, that held a brilliant blue gem, and the pommel. Where the guard was supposed to be, four prongs arched up and seemed to point at each other like some kind of claw, all pointing towards the center.

"This is a weapon that only I have," he told them. "The only other weapon that comes close to doing what it can do is the Second Hokage's Raijin, with the exception being that unlike that weapon, _only I_ can use this one. It is called _Suta__masurao_, the Star Gladiator, and here's why."

With that said, he took the hilt in both hands and concentrated before channeling chakra into it.

A snap, like what's heard when a lightning ninjutsu starts to form, sounded followed by the slow hissing of an electrical current being generated and then a steady hum, like that one could sometimes hear around the generators of the power plant. All three genin stared in amazement, wonder, and just a little apprehension.

Hayato stood before them holding a bright chakra-blue energy blade, and a deadly serious face. "Now then, let's see just how good you guys really are," he laughed.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

"HEY!!" Naruto screamed, pointing wildly at the jounin. "YOU SAID THAT ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS GET YOU TO TAKE US SERIOUSLY, THEN YOU TOLD ME IF WE PUSHED YOU TO USING THAT SPECIAL WEAPON OF YOURS, **WE'D WIN!!** _NOW,_ AFTER TAKING THAT THING OUT YOU'RE TELLING US THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU STILL WON'T GIVE US A CHANCE!?! THAT'S _**CHEATING!!**_"

"Yeah!" Ryu agreed.

"Konoha shinobi do not live by double-standards," Kasumi accused him, standing her ground with her teammates. Hayato saw that whatever opportunity he had of breaking her spirit were long past as she was fully committed to her actions, and her teammates.

He laughed at them.

"You're half right, Naruto," he said while still chuckling, his chakra-blade still activated but held at his hips for the moment. "I gave you a hint about this weapon as an example of what it would take to get me to take you all seriously. You resisted the easy route of mocking me and taunting me about drawing it out, instead focusing on putting enough pressure on me that I had no other choice. That's a good attitude to have."

"But," he growled, no longer laughing, "you also overlooked that I made the condition that I must respond to you three as though you were a serious threat. This," he held up the ignited chakra blade, "is a weapon, but it's one that I control. I can modulate how much chakra goes into it, so it's not just on or off, but can be focused in a number of different ways. I could stun a jounin with it just as easily as I could give a small shock to a toddler, and I could slice through solid stone, cleaving the Hokage Monument in half just as well as use it to bat a pebble from my face without leaving a mark on the stone."

"Right now, it's set so it won't do more than sting you if it touches you. To get me to take you seriously, I have to channel enough chakra into this that I start swinging it around at full power, maybe even use a few techniques with it, also at full power, before I'll ever consider you three a credible threat," he explained to them.

Realizing they were pretty much back at square one, just with less time, less chakra, and less stamina than before, adding in the fact that their opponent had just upped the stakes even higher, Team One looked each other in the eye as they briefly reevaluated their decision to continue this... test.

They looked back at Hayato after three seconds, their expressions set in stone almost.

"I still say it's cheating," Naruto grumbled, right before all three genin charged the armed jounin.

Hayato, while surprised, couldn't really say that it was unexpected. Smirking, he made a single horizontal swipe with his chakra-blade, the energy sword passing through all three of them.

"AAAHHHHH!!" they screamed as the Lightning chakra shocked them and sent them flying back from the discharge. A few bolts of energy flashed across their bodies for a few moments, but they quickly dissipated.

"Told you," Hayato taunted them.

A low growl suddenly got his attention and he saw Naruto glaring at him, the blond boy's eyes were slitted and the pupils colored red, right before reverting back to their natural blue as he glanced, concerned, at his fellow genins. With a wild flip, he was suddenly on his feet and charging right at him, screaming, "_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_! (Shadow Clone Technique)" and leaving a string of clones behind him.

Hayato took another slow swipe at him, only for the kid to duck under it at the last second and skid along the forest floor before coming up inside Hayato's guard with a leaping uppercut. Silently cursing, the jounin did his best to minimize the damage by turning with the blow. It had enough force behind it still to knock him back a few steps, but thankfully that was it. Then the clones joined in.

Hayato was getting really tired of this and put some actual effort into dispelling the clones. A single strike, that was over within a single second, and they all vanished in a cloud of smoke, and Hayato cursed himself again.

"You're getting annoyingly good with that jutsu, Naruto," he growled out as the smoke dissipated. As he expected, all three genin were nowhere to be seen. Sadly, either the blond hadn't heard him, or was getting smart enough to know not to react and give away his position. Hayato was betting on the former.

Back in the clearing, on the far side from where they had left their Jounin Sensei, Kasumi and Ryu were both still recovering from their latest shock, while Naruto admitted that he still couldn't feel his fingers and toes and was only just getting feeling back in his torso where the blade had struck.

"I'm getting really sick and tired of being shocked like that," Ryu grumbled quietly. They all knew Hayato was hunting for them now, so they had to be quiet.

"He's a Lightning-type," Kasumi pointed out the obvious. "If we do pass this test and become genin, he'll still be our Jounin Sensei, and whose to say that during our training that he won't zap us like that even more than he has so far?"

Making a face, Ryu grumbled, "Suddenly, I'm not to sure about wanting to pass this test."

"Yeah, well, he's still a jerk, but at least we'll be ninja," Naruto argued the point.

Ryu shrugged and nodded. "True."

"You do realize that he's just toying with us. Even I can handle a sword better than what he just threw at us, so it's kind of obvious," Ryu said. "How the hell can we even begin to block something like that? If he gets remotely serious, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to dodge it. Naruto, you got real lucky you didn't get shocked again."

"Neh," Naruto shrugged, "The ANBU used swords against me all the time when they were chasing me for a prank or two. Took me a while, but I finally figured out how to best dodge a sword and get away. Used to I had to use smoke bombs, but shadow clones are much more handy for that now!"

"OK, so maybe blondie here can keep dodging, and a glancing hit or two won't hurt him much given how he's recovered from the last few shocks, but what about us?" Ryu asked Kasumi.

"There is... something... maybe..." she said, thinking out loud. "That weapon of his, the blade is nothing but manifested chakra. That we can see it and the other effects it can be used for are probably a product of the weapon itself, but basically it's nothing but chakra."

"Yeah, so?" the boys said together.

Rolling her eyes, Kasumi quickly explained her idea. "When using ninjutsus, chakra is chakra. What really makes the difference are things like element-type, form-manipulation, or if it uses weapons or just raw chakra. When it's same versus same, then the only thing that matters is which ninja has more chakra and can put more of it into the technique."

"Right, so... what?" they were both lost.

"I know this chakra-control technique, where you use chakra to hold a leaf to one part of your body, usually the forehead, and keep it there, no matter what happens, for as long as you can. There's also one where you use chakra to float a leaf in the palm of your hand and keep it steady and floating the same distance from your skin for as long as possible," she explained.

"Yeah, I think Iruka-sensei tried to teach me that first one once. It was boring," Naruto commented.

"Well, through a combination of those techniques, we might be able to defend ourselves from Hayato-sensei's weapon," she told them.

"How?" both boys immediately asked.

"Channel and focus your chakra into your arms, or whatever part of your body that is about to be hit, and sort of create a shield, or better yet," she held up her forearm gauntlets, "armor made up of chakra to defend yourself against it."

"That... really won't do anything, it would just be regular chakra pouring out of your body then," Ryu pointed out.

"True," Kasumi admitted, "Against actual threats, like ninjutsus, weapons, and physical blows, this wouldn't work at all. But against Hayato-sensei's chakra sword? All we have to do is defend against the chakra itself and it's the same as wearing heavy armor to defend against a real blade!"

"Yeah, but you said it yourself," Ryu reminded her, "It's Lightning element chakra."

"Won't matter," Kasumi assured him. "Stop the chakra, and it won't even touch us."

"Of course..." she hesitated to say, but continued anyway, "There's the same problem with chakra versus chakra techniques. Whichever ninja has more chakra and can channel more of it usually emerges the victor."

"And we're facing off against a jounin," Ryu sighed.

"Uh... how do you do that chakra armor thing?" Naruto asked, embarrassed and rubbing his neck.

At that moment, Hayato appeared on the other side of the clearing.

"Ryu, go," Kasumi ordered. "I'll show Naruto how to do this so he can defend himself. Distract him!"

"On it," Ryu acknowledged and leapt to his feet, charging the jounin at full speed.

"Quick, Naruto, you need to learn this _now_!" Kasumi dragged him back into the woods.

Meanwhile, Ryu entered close range as Hayato charged to meet the genin.

"They say genin are inexperienced and tend to have more guts than brains, but this is just plain outright stupidity," Hayato taunted Ryu as he slashed out with his chakra blade. They both expected it to phase right through Ryu's body once more shocking him back into unconsciousness, except when he raised his arm to block... the chakra blade stopped cold, like a sword hitting heavy armor.

That is, until it edged forward and a bolt of energy still shocked Ryu, but thankfully it was enough warning and not enough power to damage him in anyway and allow him the opportunity to leap back.

"Hn," Hayato grunted, taking a step back and looking back and forth between Ryu and his sword. "Took me over a year of constant use with this thing on missions before I figured out how that could happen. None of my opponents ever seemed to catch on. I hit you three with it once and you figure that out in five minutes? I don't think so. How did you do that?"

"Blame Kasumi," Ryu chuckled, rubbing his arm where the blade had touched, which was still numb. "She was the one to work out that since the blade of your weapons is just solid chakra, our own chakra might be able to work like armor against it if we layer it against our skin. Turns out she was right. Now I just have to work out the bugs."

"There is no such technique as chakra armor, boy," Hayato growled, adjusting his stance. He now looked ready to fight, with his knees bent and spaced apart, and _Suta__masurao _in the ready position. "But, I suppose it makes sense. If anyone, it would be someone of the Mugen Tenshin Clan to figure out the weakness of my weapon. They have this annoying habit of being able to analyze a technique with just a look. Heh, there was a rumor that once there was one of the Mugen branch that had mastered that ability to such a degree that he could perfectly copy any technique he saw, before it was even fully performed, rivaling even the mighty _Sharingan_."

"Besides," Hayato growled and amped up the power going to his sword from 'tingle' to 'taser', "no armor is perfect, as was just demonstrated."

"Like I said," Ryu adjusted his own stance and increasing the output of chakra to the field he'd surrounded his body with, "there are a few bugs to work out. And I don't think of this as chakra armor, but more like extra padding at a kendo match."

Hayato frowned and growled slightly at Ryu's mocking tone. Then he charged, no longer just swinging like some rank amateur, but a real swordsman. He kept to a very basic kata he used almost daily in his own training, but it was several steps up from the way he'd been attacking so far.

Ryu, where it was just plain stupid to do so, avoided blocking where he could, focusing on dodging and not getting hit than putting his new defense to the test so soon. Unfortunately, those opportunities were closing fast and he found himself blocking more and more. The first few times, he could block the chakra blade no problem, even rebuffing it back from the hit a bit, but the jounin recovered too quickly for him to take advantage of that. After that though, it started to get harder and he began to feel a sting each time he was forced to come near Hayato's weapon.

Keeping in mind his already low chakra and how his defense seemed to be sucking it up faster than his Dragon Flame technique, Ryu knew he needed to change the dynamic here some how. That's when he saw the opening, and before it could close on him, he took full advantage.

Dropping into a roll, rather than retreating once again, Ryu went in under Hayato's defenses and came up on his right hand side, where he quickly rose up in a fast rising kick, which he then pulled in after connecting, thereby accelerating his spin allowing him to slam another three successive snap kicks to the jounin's torso, knocking the older ninja off his feet. Unfortunately, he didn't stay down.

Jumping back up, Hayato made an upward slash that Ryu just couldn't dodge or even hope to block and he was driven back by both the force and the pain. Hayato compounded the damage by swinging another two swift strikes against the genin, sending him flying.

Ryu did his best not to cry out, but he couldn't quite manage it, grunting as he hit the ground, feeling like his muscles were made out of jell-o sat on a big drum. Still, he knew he couldn't drop his guard. The jounin wasn't taking it easy on them anymore, he couldn't afford to be knocked unconscious.

Putting his hands against the ground, he pushed himself up, and then twisted his body and pulled his legs up, spinning on his head with his legs flailing out, one of which turned into a kick that kept Hayato back, and buying himself enough time to flip back up onto his feet. Landing in a ready position, Ryu blessed Kasumi to Kami and anyone else listening for coming up with the chakra-defense technique. It was probably all that kept him from being KO'd right then.

"Hn," Hayato grunted, "Not bad. Looks like I'll have to give it a little more juice."

Hayato grasped the hilt of the chakra blade with both hands and channeled a bit more chakra into the weapon. The blade brightened and sparked a couple of times, still humming at the same strength. Ryu gulped, knowing he'd have a much harder time of it now. Hayato smirked as he raised the power level from 'taser' to 'nasty shock' and charged the genin, swinging the chakra blade with sure swift strikes.

Ryu, not wanting to test his chakra defense against a higher level just yet, opted to dodge and retreat rather than to block or even deflect at this time. He had to buy more time for Naruto to learn the technique Kasumi was trying to teach him. Heck, if he learned an A-Rank ninjutsu in half an hour, he could definitely learn a chakra-control exercise even faster, right?

Right?

Jumping as high as he could, Ryu flipped over his Jounin Sensei and ran for as fast and hard as he could before skidding and sliding to a halt on the grass, twisting his body around and narrowly avoiding another slice that was only centimeters above his head. Knowing he couldn't stay on the defensive forever, Ryu moved in and sought for any opening, no matter how small or minuscule for him to take advantage of.

Sweeping his feet low, Hayato jumped over the kick, but that was exactly what Ryu wanted him to do, as he paused the sweep halfway and immediately cocked his leg back and landed a direct hit to the jounin's lower torso, knocking him back off his feet and to the ground once more. Both of them were on their feet before the grass even had time to be pressed down.

They both charged each other once more, Hayato swinging his weapon, Ryu throwing a few kunai out ahead of him in hopes of getting past the older ninja's defenses. Hayato easily swept them out of the way, switching the chakra blade from 'shocking' to 'solid' and then back to 'shock' once the kunai were no longer a threat, then locking it against Ryu's last kunai, which the genin had apparently channeled chakra through as _Sutamasurao_ did not pass through it and hit him.

Still, they both knew that he couldn't keep it up for long, and Ryu wasn't going for a brute force confrontation, just a way to get close, close enough to take full advantage of his sensei's position. Switching his clash for a hold, Ryu clearly caught Hayato by surprise, especially with the next few moves.

"Sorry about this, sensei," was the only warning he gave as he grabbed the older ninja by the neck, pulling him down and putting Ryu inside his defenses, right before slamming a two-hit uppercut against his chest. Ryu was still channeling chakra throughout his hands and arms when he did this, so Hayato was more than just lifted off the ground, he was sent flying straight up into the air.

Charging chakra into his legs and whole body now, Ryu leaped up into the air and actually body-slammed the jounin mid-air, right before kicking him in the face that had the dual-bonus of inverting his body's position to the ground and grabbing a hold of his arms and legs to keep them from moving and twisted them so they began to rotate at a _very_ high speed as they fell back to the ground. All with a single move and within the space of a heartbeat.

There was a heavy thud and clods of dirt and grass flew as the two slammed into the earth, Ryu averting injury by pushing Hayato further down and upon impact, pushing even harder against him so that he would be able to jump free. Back-flipping a few more times to put some distance between them, Ryu felt like gloating just a bit and announced, "That's my _Izuna Otoshi_. Came up with it myself when I first became a ninja and spent my entire time at the Academy perfecting it. I like to think of it as my signature move."

Hayato slowly and deliberately pulled his head out of the ground and then picked himself up. He stood to his feet and dusted the soil from his clothes and out of his hair. He gave the genin a steady look in the late afternoon light and said straightforward, "Still needs work."

Like a light switch, his face shifted from calm indifference to ninja-cold and _Sutamasurao_ was reignited with a growl as the jounin charged forward.

"Shit," Ryu cursed and focused more on getting away for the moment.

Hayato came in swinging, aiming to hit this time as Ryu began diving away from the suddenly fast strikes. It was all the genin could do to keep moving, forgoing his defense as he focused all his energy, and chakra into helping him not to get shocked again. Diving away like a rabbit running from a snake any time that he felt Hayato swinging at his back, he went in the opposite direction as fast as he possibly could.

They kept this up for about another ten or fifteen minutes, Ryu unable to turn and counter-attack, as Hayato didn't give him the opportunity, but they both got a very nice workout in speed, endurance, dodging, and chasing. Hayato even went at the kid full speed sometimes, but apparently Ryu had been training his reflexes quite a bit as every time Hayato came in with blurring after-images, Ryu used _shunshin_ to get away. But only barely, and Hayato was on him like a rabid wolf before he could get far.

Finally, Hayato cornered Ryu against the edge of the woods, and they both stopped long enough to catch their breaths. Although, in ninja terms, that means that Hayato stopped attacking twice every second and Ryu stopped running away. Ten seconds of standing there staring at each other, their breathing still heavy, though not as fast as Ryu tensed in preparation to resume the chase, but thankfully Hayato wasn't swinging just yet.

"So," Hayato said out loud, and Ryu could tell he was speaking to someone behind him, "what exactly have you two been doing for these past few minutes? Setting up traps?"

Ryu turned his head as far as he could and still keep the jounin in sight. He caught a flash of orange and blond hair out of the corner of his eye and almost breathed a sigh of relief, even as Kasumi answered Hayato-sensei's question.

"No, actually," she replied. "I've been teaching Naruto a new trick. He's a very fast learner. When properly motivated that is." That raised some eyebrows from the other two ninja, but she quickly corrected their thinking.

"Not _that_, perverts! I'm sure Ryu has already explained my idea about how to properly defend against your weapon, Sensei. As you probably know, Naruto's chakra control is not the best around, so while Ryu distracted you, I made sure that our teammate could properly defend himself. And he surprised me yet again. I hope you're prepared to fail your mission, _Kanzaki Hayato_, because I promise you, we will not give up until we all three are ninja of Konoha!"

"ATTACK!" Naruto shouted and dozens of shadow clones dropped out of the trees and pretty much began spamming Hayato like ants on food. While the jounin was distracted by the clones, the real Naruto and Kasumi came up to Ryu and helped him recuperate.

"Hard to believe we were in Iruka-sensei's class only a few hours ago, huh?" Kasumi commented to her teammates. Naruto grinned and Ryu chuckled and nodded his head.

"Whoever said being a ninja was easy deserves to meet this guy," Ryu added. "He's hardcore, all the way. Are we sure we want him as our Jounin Sensei?"

"Heck yeah!" Naruto said instantly.

At their surprised looks, he continued, "I mean, a Jounin Sensei is supposed to teach us all about being a ninja, pretty much help us be better and stronger ninja, right? Well, Hayato-sensei will have to do that for us, after we win this test of his. Which means that he'll teach us and help us to be like him."

Ryu began to grin, and Kasumi had a twinkle in her eyes as she began to catch on. Naruto nodded as he noticed this and then they all said it together. "Total Badass Ninjas!"

"Shall we?" Ryu offered his hand in the direction of their opponent, still being slammed by clones.

"We shall," Kasumi said back with a grin and a short bow.

"Let's," Naruto grinned, turned to face Hayato, who'd just finished the last of the clones, and finished with a shout, "DO THIS!"

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

(Play "Chakra Fusion Finale")

All three genin charged forward, keeping the pressure on Hayato as he'd only just dispelled the last of Naruto's shadow clones, and now he had to deal with two refreshed and one already warmed-up ninja. Ryu lead the charge as Naruto covered them with a spread of shuriken kage bunshin to keep Hayato from retreating, and Kasumi put him on the defensive by casting out senbon needles, aimed for his eyes and other sensitive areas. Hayato deflected all of the lethal projectiles with quick swipes of his solid chakra blade before adjusting it back, and by that point, Ryu was less than three feet from him, Naruto and Kasumi right behind.

Leaning back, Hayato quickly did a hold move of his own, by surging forward and striking the chakra sword halfway through the middle of Ryu's chest, halting his momentum and picking him up off the ground. Kasumi and Naruto froze when they saw this, and Ryu just stared, his eyes wide open in shock.

"NOOO!!" Kasumi screamed.

Not bothering to give a response to this drama, Hayato merely slashed his blade up in a fast motion, which had the benefit of casting Ryu off of the blade and flying through the air to crash on the ground behind Kasumi and Naruto. Both genin only cast a glance at the body of their teammate before acting. Kasumi immediately went to Ryu's side to check on him, while Naruto turned to keep Hayato busy.

"You... BASTARD!" the blond screamed, throwing himself forward, almost making the hand seal as an afterthought as ten shadow clones appeared out of thin air, all of them going for Hayato and baying for blood.

Naruto went low while all his clones went every other way to go, each angling for the general human weak points, and at least four going for the man's arms to catch and hold them down for the others. Not that Hayato just allowed this. He struck with quick stabs and fast slashes, attacking and dispelling the shadow clones as fast as he possibly could, while keeping an eye on the real Naruto, who slipped in under his guard while he was getting rid of the four that were after his arms. Naruto then swept his leg, hard, against Hayato's leg joints, knees, ankles, feet, he wasn't really aiming, and if he missed, he spun his body around to sweep with the next leg and over and over again until he hit the right spot and Hayato went down.

Much as the jounin would've loved to have taken the real one out right then and there, the best he could do was either block with his shin or thigh, or step back to avoid the hit, as the moment that he tried to use his weapon on the real Naruto, one of the clones would go in for one of his high spots, namely his head, neck, and arms, and force him to either deal with that threat, or be hurt worse than blocking leg sweeps. Naruto wouldn't give up though, and they kept up this little dance until Hayato finally got a lucky hit on a few of the clones and he got an opportunity to strike at the real Naruto.

Unfortunately, the moment he did so, driving the chakra blade straight down through the blond's head, there was a poof of white smoke, revealing the leg-sweeping Naruto was a clone, or...

"_Kawarimi_," Hayato whispered, his eyes widening in realization.

He spun, even as Naruto, with a fresh batch of clones, were already a foot away and kicking, punching, head-butting and body slamming, less than a second from impact.

Kasumi quickly checked Ryu over, confident that Naruto could distract their sensei long enough for her to get him back up on his feet at the least. She was amazed when she saw no wound. No blood, no gaping hole, no cut, not even a scratch or burn mark from the lightning chakra! Breathing a sigh of relief, she pulled out something from her weapons pouch and waved it under Ryu's nose. The young boy gasped and coughed and was sitting up instantly.

"Oh Kami, what... what is that stuff? No, never mind, I don't want to know," he coughed, waving the air under his nose away. Slowly, Kasumi helped him to his feet.

"That," she informed him, "was ammonium carbonate, aka smelling salts. I thought you were dead for a second there. Good thing I remember Hayato-sensei bragging about how he can control the intensity of his weapon. Unfortunately for him, I think Naruto forgot. How are you feeling? Numbness, any of the symptoms from before when he stunned us?"

Ryu shook his head, testing his limbs and making sure he could move okay. "No, I feel OK actually. I had stopped using that chakra defense when I had to concentrate on running rather than blocking, but when you guys showed up, I started using it again, and I think that's what made the difference. Worst injuries that I feel are from the fall when he threw me off. Just... give me a second and I'll be good to go."

"Well, thanks to Naruto, we might just have more than a second or two," she remarked.

They both looked back over at the battle and were surprised with what they witnessed.

Hayato was blocking, holding his weapon before him in a defensive posture, and it was the only thing he could do! It was feasibly impossible! No genin _ever_ has matched a jounin in terms of power and skill, even with all the luck in the world. And while Naruto certainly had no amount of skill, Hayato was finding out the hard way that the preteen had _lots_ of power.

Naruto and his clones were punching, kicking, and just plain slamming themselves against him as they performed his stupid little '_Kage Bunshin Nanseihokubatsu_ (Shadow Clone Blitz)' technique all over again, but all it really did was signal to everyone in hearing range that him and _ALL_ of his clones would swarm their target like bees on honey, ants on an anthill, and even mosquitoes to an open bloody wound! It didn't help that they'd gone from just throwing themselves at him to aiming for specific spots, and there would always be a few in the Blitz that sought to disable him in someway, grabbing his arms, taking out his legs, stuff like that.

What made it worse though, was that Hayato _knew_ that he could end the whole thing right then. He could even kill all three genin, or just knock them out so they'd sleep for three days straight, or also stun them so they were conscious but completely paralyzed and unable to move for the same amount of time. However, to do even one of those things, to even begin preparing the techniques or the chakra required to do it in the fastest, or even the slowest method available to him, would prove one thing beyond all else.

That he was taking them seriously.

Which meant that they would pass the test, according to the rules he'd outlined when they began this little exercise. Which meant that he would have to accept them as his genin and become their jounin sensei. Which would mean that he would fail his mission, no matter how much he disagreed with it.

He wasn't there just yet.

There was something to this _Blitz_ technique Naruto was using though. Numbers only counted if what made them up were worth anything, but at the same time, even a whole lot of something worth next to nothing could still be worth a lot. Given the proper direction and training, Naruto could lead his clones like a general with his own personal army. Or, he could go with his current direction, the wild natural way of doing things, and swarm an enemy so they can't move, can't defend, can't attack, can't do anything but be consumed. It certainly held a lot of potential.

Uh... Not that Hayato even cared, as the genin was going back to the Academy in about... forty-five minutes to half an hour. Right? Right, of course. Who cares about the potential of some washed out Academy student, right?

_Finally_, Naruto ran out of clones, and it was just him attacking. Before he could conjure up some more, Hayato took another step, a baby one though, to being serious. He channeled the necessary chakra, and used one of his personal kenjutsu techniques; _Rasetsuzan_, developed solely with the use of _Sutamasurao_ in mind, but used at one quarter of it's true power.

Dashing forward at pretty close to his full speed, (Hey, he didn't want to be accused of going all out for a _genin_!) Hayato slashed with his chakra sword in a practiced pattern, moving fast enough that he took all three genin by surprise, and landed some nasty hits on the blond troublemaker. His first hit was the straight, vertical slash that went from the crown of the short blond's head, to out between his legs. He then moved the blade and performed an upwards slash, diagonally from the boy's left hip to his right shoulder, followed by a horizontal cut through the torso from right to left, then a downward slash from the left shoulder to the right hip, back up to the right shoulder and down diagonally back to the left hip, and then another horizontal slash from left to right this time, only to finish it up with going from the right hip up to the left shoulder. He took half a step back, and the blurred into motion again, striking with a vertical slash and charged for a thrust to the center of the boy's torso.

Of course, Naruto was screaming in pain throughout all this, Hayato grunting with each slash, as while he held back a great deal of his strength, the evidence of his control was in that he controlled exactly how much force went into each attack, demonstrated than the young genin wasn't shredded into meaty chunks, only hit by blows from a lightning element chakra blade.

He wasn't allowed to complete the thrust though, when Ryu came in from the side and Kasumi took a note from Naruto's book and paid him back the favor by using _Saka-Kawarimi_ (Reverse-Replacement) to pull him to safety and put her in the line of fire. Unfortunately for Hayato, Kasumi's chakra control was a lot higher than both Naruto and Ryu's, as she caught the chakra blade between her palms and, with it at it's current level, held it steady with no pain or painful side effects. Hayato growled in annoyance, then pulled back as he was facing Ryu's very powerful kicks if he remained deadlocked with the clan princess.

"This is starting to get annoying," Hayato growled at them. "Care to explain why it is you won't just give up? Even if, and I do stress the word _if_, you manage to pass this little test of mine, the Council will never let the heiress to one of the most powerful and well-known clans in all the Hidden Countries become a ninja when her own family are the ones saying that you can't cut it! Give up already and save us all the bruises and hassle!"

"No," Kasumi quietly replied.

"That's it? Just 'no'? None of that 'we will never give up' and 'we will be ninja' crap from earlier? Do the smart thing, _Princess_, and just go home and lick your wounds. If it'll make you feel better, I'll even recommend the boys here get re-seeded into some of the other teams. Naruto was supposed to be on Team Seven with Copycat Kakashi even. Hokage changed it at the last minute, probably because the kid learned the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone Technique). Ryu was spotted for an ANBU slot. Would've meant another five years of training for him, but he would've been one of the elite. If you just give up already, I can make sure that that will still happen. Naruto too. Quite frankly, this mission has been more trouble than it's worth, and I'm tired of fighting kids that I keep letting hit me!"

Kasumi shook her head this time and repeated, "No."

"Selfish little bitch, aren't you?" he sneered at her.

"Don't... you... _dare_... say that... about... Kasumi-chan!!" a growling voice, carried by the wind, said.

All three of them turned to see Naruto, his orange jumpsuit scuffed, torn, burned, and dirty, with his yellow blond hair waving in the evening air, and his hard blue eyes glaring with an intensity that was actually impressive by ninja standards. He was hunched over, and cradling his chest while one arm hung limp, but he was on his feet, when he should've been laid back for at least a few minutes, if not a full hour!

Scowling, Hayato channeled enough chakra into his weapon that an adult jounin would be KO in an instant if it touched them unprotected, no matter what. It still wasn't full power, but he was starting to wear thin on patience.

All three genin stared and gulped silently when they saw the chakra blade glow brighter for a few seconds before flashing once and returning to the same hue it always had. They still had little doubt that their Jounin Sensei had just upped the stakes another level.

Naruto wasn't through impressing them yet though.

"I've heard that kind of _crap..._ all my life, Hayato-sensei," Naruto told them. "Just give up, it's easier. Go home kid, you'll never succeed. Why are you being so selfish, everyone else is suffering because you won't quit! You are not worth it. You're trash. You're weak. You're pathetic. You don't deserve to live, demon!"

The blond stood there, quivering, his head bowed and his eyes shadowed. Then, slowly at first, a visible aura of chakra began to surround his body, the grass around his feet flowing out from the central point where he stood, blown back by an unseen wind. The blue-eyed blond lifted his head and even Hayato was taken aback by the raw emotion and power this kid was exuding.

"I made a decision to become Hokage. So that people would recognize me for my own accomplishments and would see me for who I really am. I decided that I would become the strongest ninja in the village to protect people and so that everyone would know my name. Not kid, or brat, or demon. My. Name. Is." His aura pulsed and his fists clenched as he ground his teeth together. The amount of chakra he was broadcasting was absolutely phenomenal, especially when you take into account that he's been fighting and using high-level jutsus for almost five hours straight. An unnatural wind blasted around the young genin's body as he screamed out loud, "UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

All three of them ran straight at Hayato as fast as they could, and they were on the offensive.

The jounin did his best to discourage that tactic, attacking right back with precise, powerful slashes from his chakra blade, but they did not retreat as they did before. Instead, whenever he swung it in one of Naruto or Ryu's direction, they actually tried to _punch_ the chakra blade. The scary thing though, was that when Naruto punched it, he not only blocked it, he actually managed to deflect it.

When he swung it at Kasumi, either Ryu or Naruto were there in a flash and deflected the blow just enough for Kasumi herself to dodge or counter with a strong kick to Hayato. Hayato tried to retreat when that happened, but that soon became impossible as Naruto and Ryu were always there with another attack for him to avoid, so he took to blocking more than he probably should have. If he hadn't though, what happened next might never have been discovered.

None of them were sure exactly when it happened the first time, they just knew, that with all four of them in the thick of it, attacking, blocking, defending, and countering as best they could, at some point Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu kept finding that when they defended against Hayato's chakra blade, at certain points their chakra seemed to... well, _merge_ for lack of a better term, better enabling them to deflect the blade and allow for a counter attack.

Kasumi was the first to realize it and her overactive mind began to analyze this strange, instantaneous phenomenon. After another solid minute of fighting, and seeing it happening more and more between the three of them, most times only between two of the three, but in rare instances it happened with all three's chakra. Before her mind was overwhelmed with the possibilities and potential of these seemingly random occurrences, she refocused on their more immediate task. It wouldn't matter what it meant if they didn't win this test, and soon, as they all saw how the sun was inching its way much closer to the horizon.

Finally, she figured it out just enough that she believed she had the timing of it down, now she just had to communicate it to the others without stopping or retreating.

"Guys!" she cried out. "Defend and counter together!"

It was just vague enough that Hayato wouldn't know immediately what she was telling them to do, and it was simple enough that both the boys would increase and synchronize their timing enough so that this... chakra merging would happen more and more often. Kasumi, despite feeling like she should drop any minute now, redoubled her own efforts and followed her own advice.

Hayato, when he heard Kasumi's shout, channeled another ten percent of his chakra into his weapon. He wasn't really sure how it was these _genins_ were doing it, but they were actually going hand-to-hand with him and putting some real pressure on him!

If it hadn't been for Kasumi coming up with that surprisingly simple defense to his unique weapon, this would have been over an hour ago! Then again, if it hadn't been for Naruto, Kasumi probably would have given up before he ever had to draw his weapon in the first place! And then there was Ryu, who was more than a pain in his own right, and fit in perfectly with the other two!

He had no doubt that he could cut through their little chakra defenses as easily as a real sword cut through real armor. Put enough force and energy behind it, and the sword can break through any armor. The thing that was beginning to puzzle him though, was that there were moments, very brief moments, where he was aiming to cut in between them and slice through, but instead he had actually been rebuffed!

It always happened when he sought to attack _between_ two of them, and they defended together at the same time. Although there had been brief instances where the third came up to aid and it was suddenly all three of them defending together, and he felt quite a bit of force pushing his chakra blade back. It was almost as if...

No. Just... no, it was completely impossible! It had never been done! Ever! It just wasn't possible!

Then Hayato noticed how every time he attacked now, all three of them would move to defend the one he attacked, no matter which one or in what position. Now, when they blocked, he began to feel that repelling force even more often now.

No. Way.

Hayato tried to step back and evaluate this new information, but they, especially Naruto, wouldn't let him, constantly moving to attack and defending together every single time he did. Finally, he had no choice, as he charged another special technique.

"_Engetsu_!" he cried as an energy wave exploded from the blade of his weapon.

All three genin were driven back, cast to the ground with fresh bruises and a couple new electrical burns.

Breathing heavily, Hayato tried to understand what was happening here. This was just supposed to be a classified C-Rank mission, hired out by the Council and with special permission from the Hokage. Three days ago, the lists for the Teams were decided, and Hayato had been approached only that morning with the mission, which he had accepted, however reluctantly. Then, there was the mess with Uzumaki Naruto breaking into the Hokage Tower and _successfully_ getting away with the Forbidden Scroll, only for it to be discovered that Mizuki, a Chuunin Teacher at the Academy, had been behind the entire thing, and the Dead Last of the class, who had been about to repeat the last year of the Academy for the fourth time, was passed onto genin status for having a hand in stopping Mizuki and learning the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone technique).

A day later, the new team manifests are released, and traditionally the Dead Last and the Rookie of the Year are put on the same team with a third, usually a kunoichi, and that was expected to happen with Uzumaki being put on the same team as the Uchiha, who was going to Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi. Instead, Uzumaki went to Team One, and Mugen Ayane, who had been previously slated on the original listing to be on Team One, now went to Team Seven.

Then today, Hayato challenges Team One to an impossible challenge, provoke and then survive getting a jounin to go full out against them. They weren't supposed to pass, they weren't supposed to learn the lesson of teamwork, they were supposed to fail. Instead, Uzumaki actually _inspires_ the primary target to fight anyway and now look at them!

They had natural teamwork, and a dynamic that just wouldn't stop! And now _this_?!

Hayato had heard of, in mythology mostly, how a few special ninjas were capable of actually _merging_ their chakra, so that even though they were individually weak, they could pull off techniques that would make all five Kages quiver in fear and awe. But those were just stories, it could never happen in real life... right?

In the very brief breather they all had, they all glanced over to the West and noticed that the sun was just now beginning to touch the horizon, and with every passing second, it dipped lower and lower. In the East, the night sky was already coming out and the stars were visible by now. Team One knew they were running out of time, but Hayato's patience was at an end.

"Enough of this," Hayato growled, mostly to himself to shake off the strange ideas of fictional myths. "I'm going to finish this once and for all!"

"Got that right!" Naruto growled right back. "Ready guys? _Let's END THIS_!!"

Kasumi and Ryu said nothing, only nodding in eerie sync with their teammate and rushing forward as he did. Hayato, seeing this, poured about 89 percent into his weapon. Any higher and he would risk permanent injury to one of them, and above ninety percent, well let's just say that when he was on a mission and used _Sutamasurao_that he started out at above ninety percent. In other words, he'd fail his mission, and as much as he'd love to follow Kasumi's earlier suggestion to fail them just to succeed his mission, he was a man of his word. If he was pushed hard enough to get truly serious... Well then, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"_Shiden_!" he cried as he charged the three genin.

All three launched punches, which just so happened to connect with the down-coming chakra blade. There was a shock wave of pure force that went out from the impact, but the more amazing thing was that they were maintaining prolonged contact with the lightning-chakra blade, where before they had only very briefly slapped it aside, or managed to push it back and away from them. In fact, that was exactly what they were trying to do, but Hayato was putting on the pressure now, using his muscle strength and body to keep them from pushing his weapon back, locking them together.

The sun was a quarter below the horizon now, deepening red and dark orange. Ryu noticed this and pushed every scrap of chakra he had into his hand and adjust his hold so that both hands were now pushing against Hayato's oncoming chakra blade. Naruto and Kasumi quickly mimicked him, giving them the proper leverage now, but they were still at a significant disadvantage, especially when the blade began to cut into and through Kasumi and Ryu's defenses.

Naruto, seeing this, glanced very briefly at the horizon himself and felt the pressure rise. He didn't care where it came from, or what it came from even, but he _pushed_ everything he had and wrapped his own chakra around Kasumi and Ryu and then started to push back against Hayato even more. He refused to lose and he absolutely refused to fail his teammates.

The sun was halfway down now, only the orangery red top shown through the trees, turning the sky a myriad of colors, highlighting the clashing blue auras that danced amidst the clearing of Training Area 11.

Kasumi felt Naruto, _somehow_, wrap his chakra around her and Ryu's allowing them to no longer worry about the blade cutting into them, and giving them better leverage to push back even harder. But this wouldn't result in anything, she knew. They were running out of time! At this rate, the only thing that would matter would be who ran out of chakra first, and despite Naruto's seemingly limitless supply, Hayato _was_ a jounin!

No, their only chance, and it had to be soon, was if they pooled everything they had together and then the same way a counter attack works, draw the opponent in with the energy of his own attack, in this case Hayato pushing against them, and then push back with an even stronger burst of energy!

"Guys," she whispered, sounding more like a hiss with the way they were all struggling, "We've... only got... one chance... here. When I say... pull all your chakra together, and then... we'll all push back together. OK? It... it's our only chance..."

"I'm with you Kasumi-hime!" Ryu shouted, his chakra flashing over his body in a blue aura.

"When you say, Kasumi-chan!" Naruto cried, settling his stance. Kasumi's body flashed with the same blue aura that her teammates were filled with, her chakra blazing to a level that she'd always been told was dangerous, potentially lethal. She didn't care.

"NOW!" she screamed. And then the impossible happened, right before Kanzaki Hayato's eyes. If he hadn't been there to witness it, he never would have believed it, even as he stood there and watched, he still couldn't quite get himself to believe it!

Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu's chakra-infused forms began to blaze with power, right before they began to flow into one another, seemingly without end, merging and becoming one. It didn't stop with just their chakra flowing together and forming a new shield though. As Hayato watched, the chakra gathered in their hands pulled back for just the barest inch, fusing into a stronger and more powerful form of energy, much like chakra itself is a combination of physical energy and spiritual energy, their chakras mixed and came out stronger!

Something even stranger happened though. It lasted for only an instant. A single instant and then it was gone, just like that. An eye blink lasts longer than this did, but Hayato still managed to catch it, and very quickly realized what it was. During this instant of time, his chakra blade, which was composed primarily of Lightning-Element chakra, flashed a blinding white, the white of a true lightning strike in fact. At the exact same instant that this happened, that chakra around each of the genins' fists flashed a different color each. Around Ryu's hands, was a bright burning red aura. Kasumi's hands were blazing a deep cool watery blue. And Naruto's fists were surrounded and clenched by a clear flowing yellow-gold aura.

Fire. Water. Wind.

All three combined, in a single instant, combating Lightning? Oh, shit!

The instant _after_ that specific instant, there was a massive explosion and all four ninja were blasted away from the central point of the blast, which had been where they'd been attacking each other. It was in the space of time after this that Hayato slowly stood up and gathered himself that he looked down and saw that _Sutamasurao_ was still active in his hand, and that in the instant before the explosion, was the same instant that he had channeled 100 percent power into his weapon.

Hayato looked up at the sky and glanced at the Western horizon. He watched as the last rays of the sun finally dipped below the horizon. Smiling, he shook his head and looked over to see three suddenly depressed genin, who were looking back at him like they wanted to rip his guts out and smush them under foot. He started to laugh, and once he started, he found it very difficult to stop.

"What's so funny?" Naruto demanded after about a minute of this behavior.

"Sorry kid," Hayato said after regaining control of himself, "I just got the joke the universe just played on me. Damn, but I hadn't wanted a genin team so early in my career. I only got promoted to jounin a few years ago! But still, if anyone, I suppose it's good that I have the best."

"What are you talking about?" Ryu asked.

"I'm talking about you three being at the Academy tomorrow morning, bright and early at 7 AM. My genin team will be the best damn team if I have anything to say about it, and it just so happens that I do. That means I am going to train you three into the ground so hard that you come out on the other side of the planet by the time I'm done with you!"

The three stared at him, dumbfounded for a few seconds, before Kasumi asked, "Are you saying what we think you're saying?"

Hayato nodded and added, "Now, given how late it is and everything, we'll pick up with actual training tomorrow. Like I said, be out in front of the Academy tomorrow at 7 AM. And just to clear up any more questions you have at this moment; yes, you passed. At that last second, right before that explosion, you pushed me to the breaking point and I actually had to go all out to match you. Congratulations. You three are now Genin Team One of Konoha."

"YYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!" Naruto crowed so all of the Hidden countries heard.

"YES!" Ryu exclaimed, just as loud. Kasumi was crying with tears of joy.

"You earned it," Hayato acknowledged their celebration. "I wasn't kidding about tomorrow."

"Hai, Sensei!" all three dutifully snapped to attention.

"Good," he nodded, then turned away, and sweat-dropped, saying to himself, "Now I've just got to explain to the Council and the Hokage why I failed my mission... Oh boy."

******End Chapter One**


	2. Hell Week

Title:Team One

Author:Joshua

Disclaimer:Naruto is owned by some Japanese company, both Manga and Anime and Movies. I don't own any of that, so I really don't care who does, I'm just writing cause I enjoy it. But seriously the primary owner is a guy by the name of Masashi Kishimoto and ever since he started focusing his series called "Naruto" on the character called Sasuke, everybody's been &itching about it and I've stopped watching it until they stop whining. Still, it's a good verse to write in and the fanfiction is turning out to be a lot more entertaining than the canon.

Summary:Team One has passed their test and are official, now comes the hard part; Training with Hayato!

AN:Quite a few characters that are more or less OCs, but are based upon certain fictional ninja characters from a multitude of other series, most notably Naruto's Teammates and Jounin-sensei. Kasumi is *based* off of the same character from the DOA Fighting Game/Anime/Live Action Movie series. Ryu is based off of every single fictional character that has the same name. Or he will be. Team One Sensei is based off a character from "Marvel VS Capcom" named Hayato Kanzaki and think of him as a Ninja Jedi, but the excuse is his "lightsaber" is powered by chakra instead of something else. BTW, I'm imagining Hayato's voice to be that of Scott McNeil, the actor that did Piccolo in the dubbed DBZ and DBGT series, just FYI.

AN2:Ryu's outfit and appearance is now more similar to the Ryu from the "Street Fighter II" series of games/anime/movies/etc. This will hereby be known as his "Training Outfit/Costume" and will be further explained in-story.

AN3:Naruto's Training Outfit, combined with his blond hair and blue eyes, makes him look like a 12-year-old Ken from the same "Street Fighter II" series. Expect spoilers for Naruto and Ryu's taijutsu techniques there!

AN4: Technique names were going to be done in English, but because of my use of proper Japanese use of names and so forth, I finally decided to go with the 'Subtitled' approach. So for the first chapter here, you'll see "_Kagebunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone Technique)" and "_shunshin no jutsu_ (Body Flash technique)" or just Flash technique for short. In "conversation" only English will be used, for simplicity of reading and writing.

Soundtrack:

"Team One Training" - Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" from the _Rocky_ Soundtrack.

"Chakra Merge Training" - Queen's "We Will Rock You" from the _Classic Queen_ album.

"Bunshin" - Nickelback's "If Today Was Your Last Day" from their _Blackhorse_ album.

"Team One gets Stronger" - Britney Spears "Stronger" from the _Oops...I Did It Again_ album.

Story:

Uzumaki Naruto was still a bit groggy by the time he reached the Academy at 7AM on the dot. It had been a rough day, the day before, and he'd only fallen asleep some time close to midnight, then in order to get to the rendezvous on time, he'd had to get up at 6AM just to get ready and cover the distance between his apartment and the Ninja Academy building. He'd also had a weird dream involving some kind of sewer that had seemed vaguely familiar.

Shaking off the grogginess as best he could, Naruto smiled when he saw his teammates arriving at almost the precise moment that he did. He was still having trouble believing it, even when he thought it to himself. His _teammates_! He had teammates! He was part of a team, and they were all ninja and because of their teamwork, they'd done it together and were ninja _because_ they were a team!

"Hey guys!" Naruto enthusiastically greeted said teammates.

"Good Morning, Naruto-kun," Tenshin Kasumi warmly returned the greeting. She was from one of the more powerful clans of Konoha and normally was respectful and aloof, but given what had happened the day before between the three of them, she felt some familiarity was due.

"Yo, Ryu!" he waved to his second teammate.

"Yo," Hayabusa Ryu nodded back. "How are you two feeling? I'm still feeling the shocks from yesterday to be completely honest with you."

Kasumi nodded in agreement and held a hand over a particularly throbbing wound on her body, although the wound was nothing but a fading bruise that was still a rather ugly grayish-blue-black. Ryu was sporting his own share of bruises and even a couple of electrical burns that were wrapped up, but even if they weren't, you would see that they were already mostly healed. The wonders of ninja medicine is that medical ninjutsu and trauma care is first rate, even for rookie genins. Bruises, cuts, stabs, burns, in other words the perils of just training to being a ninja get treated overnight and are completely healed within a week. More serious injuries of course, such as nerve-damage, severed arteries and severe trauma take considerably longer, sometimes more than just a week or two.

Ironically, Naruto looked as fit as ever, not even so much as a faded red mark, for either burn or bruise. If they didn't know better, they'd swear it had been someone else fighting alongside them yesterday.

"Hayato-sensei said to be here at seven o'clock, right?" Naruto asked, looking around curiously.

"Yes, I did Naruto," a gruff voice said from behind them.

"AAHHH!" all three genin screamed and jumped. Turning, they saw their Jounin Sensei standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, his dark eyes gazing at them from beneath his forehead protector. He was still in the same outfit they'd seen him in yesterday, a dark skin-tight sleeveless black outfit with steel-toed boots and a ripped tunic covering his chest.

"Something wrong?" he asked, teasingly.

"You scared us!" Naruto shouted, pointing at him.

"Then you need to pay closer attention to your surroundings," Hayato said. "Good to see that you're all on time. That can be important in the path of a ninja. Before we begin with your actual training, we need to talk, the three of us."

"Talk? About what?" Naruto asked.

"What happened yesterday, for starters," he said. "Tenshin-hime, for my actions and any words that I may have said yesterday that might have offended you, I apologize." The jounin then bowed even with his waist in Kasumi's direction, who looked surprised, but pleased as well.

"Thank you, Kanzaki-sensei. Your apology is appreciated and accepted. Surely that is not all that requires a serious discussion. I understand how missions work, and no offense was received on my part."

"Thank you," Hayato rose from the bow. "And you are right, there is more that needs to be discussed. For starters, I must ask the question... do all three of you _want_ me to be your Jounin Sensei after yesterday?"

"Huh?" Naruto and Ryu aped.

"As I said before the test, the only reason I was assigned to Team One was because Kasumi was assigned to Team One, and I was hired to discourage her from continuing on as a ninja. She passed the test, and proved to me, the Hokage, and those that hired me that she cannot be discouraged. The Hokage and the Council of Konoha all certified my final decision. Team One passes and all three of you are now ninja of Konoha. However, if you wish it, another Jounin Sensei, one that will not put you through a test, but rather begin training you immediately, can be found and assigned to Team One if even one of you feels there might be trouble following my orders as your Jounin Sensei. And so, the question of if you want me to be your Jounin Sensei?"

All three thought it over seriously for several seconds. Naruto almost immediately exclaimed, after thinking about it, "Hell no! We don't need no stinking replacement! Besides, I think it'll be more fun to repay all those bruises you gave us during future missions!"

"I'm with Naruto," Ryu said after a minute. "Even if they brought in the Legendary Sannin and offered them to us, I'd rather learn what you have to teach us first. And besides, we earned it."

Kasumi nodded along. "I truly don't bear any grudge against you, Hayato-sensei. I feel that we were all put together for a reason, though that reason may not yet be apparent. I also get the feeling that you'd rather be our sensei anyway. We... intrigue you, no?"

Hayato smirked and just nodded his head once. "Well then, the next thing to discuss is our training schedule and exactly what it is that you kids want to do," he said.

"What do you mean?" Ryu asked.

"For example, and I'm just pulling this off the top of my head; Team 8 from your year. While I haven't heard if they passed their own test yet, you've got a Hyuuga, an Aburame, and an Inuzuka. That right there is a clear example of a Tracker Team. Each has a specialty that allows them to follow and track just about anything under the sun. Then there's the classic Ino-Shika-Cho team, of which there is another example in your generation. The Nara's are best at restraining or limiting an enemy ninja's movements. The Yamanaka's have a special jutsu that allows them to control their enemies' minds and bodies, further limiting opposing action. And then you have the Akimichi's, who are close-range melee fighter specialists. Making for a good defense or vanguard team. What I mean when I ask what it is you want to do, what do you want to specialize in?"

"You mean what kind of team do we want to be?" Naruto guessed, scratching his head.

Hayato nodded.

Naruto glanced at Ryu and Kasumi, then shrugged, even as they looked back and forth between him and themselves. Finally Kasumi suggested, "Well, what about a Support Team, what would be involved with that?"

Hayato raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "By Support Team, I assume you mean that between the three of you, and myself, that you would fulfill all roles as needed, and be able to support the actions of other teams if you ever joined them on a mission? A Jack-of-all-Trades kind of team?"

Kasumi just shrugged, then nodded and smiled.

"Well, for one," Hayato went on to answer her question, "I would have to make sure that all three of you, individually and when together, could properly fulfill all the roles possible. That's not easy to do. And there are a lot more teams out there than just the two I mentioned, with Trackers, Containment teams, Front Line specialists, Medics, Communication teams, Battle Field Support, and then there are ninjutsu specialists, genjutsu specialists, and then Balanced teams where each member is a specialist in taijutsu, ninjutsu, or genjutsu. On top of that, there are Element Users and Long Range specialty teams as well. It's possible, but very hard to do, not to mention that eventually you may fall into one of those niches yourselves instead of being interchangeable as a true Support Team would be."

They all shared a look, then turned back to him and shrugged.

"Sounds fun!" Naruto said.

"Sounds interesting," Ryu agreed.

"Sounds like our answer," Kasumi told him.

Hayato chuckled, thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded his head. Putting his hands on his hips, he said to them, "All right. I'll do everything I can to make you into a proper Support Team. I'll also see about getting us teamed up with other genin teams, after you're trained up enough. First things first though, and that's CT as I like to call it. Basic Conditioning Training to get you three into proper shape."

"Hey! I thought we proved we _were_ in shape yesterday!" Ryu protested.

"That showed me where you are right now. I know ways of getting you much further a lot faster," Hayato grinned. "All I ask is that you do what I say, no questions asked. I'll do my best to explain things ahead of time so you won't have to ask questions, but I don't want any protests about how it's unfair. You want to be a Support Team, you've got to damn well work for it, understand?"

"Hai sensei!" they exclaimed.

"Good," he nodded his head in approval. "So in the future, do not ask me about missions or beg to get better missions if the ones that you're assigned aren't to your liking. While the Hokage has final say on what missions are assigned, I will do what I can so that the missions you do get are to your advantage."

"Understand this," Hayato continued, "D-Rank missions are piss-poor chores that the villagers are too lazy to do for themselves and it's cheaper to hire ninja than it is for professionals or another service to do the same things. Therefore, D-Rank missions are the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to what a ninja does."

"Yeah, I've heard my dad talk about it before," Ryu interrupted. "How newly graduated genin can't do anything above D-Rank missions until they're properly trained and their Jounin Sensei allows them to do higher ranked missions. So what do we have to do to get C-Rank missions?"

Hayato smirked. "As I was about to tell you, before I was so rudely interrupted," he glared at a gulping Ryu, "Don't think of D-Rank's as chores, despite that being what they are. Think of them as Training Missions. If you succeed, then you won't just get a paycheck after you're done, but also some valuable experience that you can put to use in future missions. We'll cover that more when we actually accept missions. But for now..."

Hayato paced away from them, then turned to look at them over his shoulder, "For what you just asked of me, you are not in any shape to do any missions, even D-Ranks. So, for the next week, we will be focusing on your CT, Conditioning Training."

"WHAT?!" Ryu and Naruto screamed.

"Please explain, Hayato-sensei," Kasumi requested, looking a bit annoyed herself.

"_IF_," he ignored them for the moment, "If you meet my standards by the end of the training period at the end of this week, then the following week, we will begin doing Training Missions. On the other hand, if you do not meet my standards, and they'll be reasonable, then you have to wait another week before doing missions. If you have a problem with this, it's not too late for us to go to the Hokage and request a different jounin be assigned as your sensei. If you agree to this, there's no going back. Agreed?"

Naruto looked at Ryu, who looked back, then both looked to Kasumi. All three bore an anguished face, and more than a little fear. They each had doubts that they would not meet Hayato's standards and were afraid that they would never be allowed to prove themselves and do some real missions. But at the same time, Kasumi's suggestion of being a Support Team still sounded good, and there was merit in the idea. Still...

After a short time, they each made up their own minds and could see it in their teammates eyes what that decision was, and turned to Hayato and said together, "Agreed."

He nodded once, turning back to face them and held out his right hand. One by one, he shook their hands, and said back to them, "Agreed."

"Now, get to Training Area 25 as fast as you can. I have some things to pick up. There's a gate on the northern side of the Area and a clearing right in front of that. Until I get there, I want all three of you working on your own techniques. Also work on your weaknesses. Kasumi, your endurance is not as good as Naruto or even Ryu's. Work on that. Naruto. Your chakra control sucks."

The short blond face-faulted and slowly picked himself back up.

"Kasumi, Ryu, both of you work on him with that. Teach him whatever chakra control exercises you can think of, even things that aren't established exercises but use chakra, anything. Naruto, I'd like you to try something while you're doing those exercises. Every time that you learn it, create at least 10 or more clones and have them work on that one exercise while you move onto learning the rest and then create another 10 for each exercise after that. Kasumi, you need to work on your chakra reserves, your endurance, and your own techniques. Ryu, you need to work on your reserves and your control equally, and maybe a few of your own techniques. Speaking of which, outside of Clan-Restrictions, there's no rule that says you can't share techniques, but that's not an order." He shrugged. "Beyond that, do whatever you feel like doing, but this is training, so don't just sit on your asses, all right?"

"Hai!"

"Go."

Ten seconds later, the area was completely empty.

Hayato watched as the genin ran off, taking his time in making his own way to the area he had been assigned for training his genin team by the Council. He sighed, rubbing his temples in hopes of relieving the pressure. The Council was none too pleased when he'd reported in yesterday evening, although he couldn't help but notice the Hokage himself seemed to be all too happy with the results of his mission, and Team One's Genin Test. Personally, he couldn't blame the old ninja, as he'd been there and seen three preteen Academy rookies _hold their own_ against him for over _five hours_! At the end, they'd done a few things that he would say were fundamentally impossible, except that he'd seen them and had been going over them in his mind constantly.

He had tried to explain all that to the Council, but nothing could put them in a good mood after he'd dropped the bomb that he'd passed Team One. He remembered the long debrief very well.

_Konoha Council Chambers_

_The Night Before_

_One Hour After Sunset_

"Thank you for joining us, Jounin Kanzaki Hayato," the Hokage said as Hayato stood before the ruling body of Konoha. "I understand that the genin teams for this year's graduating class were given their team assignments today, and that your mission was to begin today, yes?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Hayato replied.

"And the status of your mission?" the Hokage asked, even though it was the rest of the Council that were wanting to know. He already knew, thanks to Hayato coming to him first.

"Failure, Hokage-sama," Hayato answered with a straight face.

The Council erupted into chaos, with most of the present members, three in particular, shouting the same word at the top of their lungs.

"WHAT?! HOW?"

"How could the Star Gladiator... It's an outrage... Unbelievable! Outrageous! How?! We can't stand for this... How could three genin... How could the demon... What?! Now the princess will... This is a nightmare... How could Kasumi and the _demon_ be... We should do something... What? We have to dissolve the team... How? Forbid all of them from being ninja... Send them back to the Academy anyway..." And so on and so forth for several long minutes.

Finally, the Hokage had had enough and silenced the room with a small display of his annoyance. The leader of Konohagakure released his Killing Intent at roughly half of it's potential, with promise of more, and the Council very quickly shut up as the air grew hot and heavy and they felt a weight, like a katana pressed up against their throats, settle around them all. Once the Council Chambers were silent, the Hokage let up, a little, and waited to make sure they were all composed enough to actually hear what he was going to say next.

"If you wouldn't mind, Kanzaki-san, please give us your report on your mission and explain why it is you believe it failed?" the Hokage ordered. It sounded like a question, but it was undoubtedly an order.

"Hai," Hayato nodded once and began to give a detailed report, from the moment he picked the genin up at the Academy to the moment just over an hour ago, when he'd let them go home and told them that they were going to be genin of Konoha. By the time he finished, most of the Council looked like they were about to start shouting again but weren't about to with the Hokage still in the room, although three in particular had different expressions. Hayato took note of exactly who they were and tried to judge their varying emotional states.

The first that he looked towards, and wasn't fuming at the bit, was Kasumi's older brother, Tenshin Ein Hayate, the leader and Head of the Mugen Tenshin Clan of Konoha. His reasons for supporting Hayato's mission were surprisingly straightforward for a ninja, at least that's what Hayato and the entire Council had thought. Now though, seeing the small smile on the man's face and a twinkle in his eye that spoke of quiet pride and satisfaction, made Hayato wonder about that. Did Hayate really want his younger sister to stay at home and be nothing but a spoiled princess, or did he want something different? There was no way to know for sure at this point in time, so Hayato decided to keep his eyes open and wait and see.

The next that drew Hayato's eye was the old war hawk, Danzo, who although was not officially part of the Council, but could not be barred unless there was some secret meeting going on, which very rarely happened. While Hayato's mission was not to be made public knowledge and was kept off the books, not that it really mattered, the man was still here. And he looked pissed off. He looked as though he was going to skip shouting and go right to physical violence, except for the fact that the man was wrapped up in medical bandages and had only one usable arm. The old bastard really had it in for Naruto, more often referring to the young boy as 'Demon Brat' and other synonyms. Hayato made note to never be alone _anywhere_ with that man.

The last of the Council that drew Hayato's attention in his expression being different from everyone else was Hayabusa Ken, none other than Ryu's own father. Of course the expression Hayato saw on the man's face was perfectly normal, expected even. Especially when you take into account that he was currently reading the latest volume of _Icha Icha Paradise _("Makeout Paradise" a popular porn novel), the perverted grin and gleaming eyes were entirely acceptable.

By the time Hayato had completed his observations of the Council, the Hokage was speaking once more.

"Kanzaki-san, thank you for your report," the Hokage nodded in acknowledgment. "Given that your mission was stated to get the genin-potentials to quit and either go back to the Academy or drop from the ninja program entirely, your method of challenging them to an outright duel was acceptable, and in normal circumstances telling them that the only way to pass would be to get a jounin angry enough to try and kill them might have worked in accomplishing that. However, it seems that not only did these three comprehend the true meaning of the Genin Test, but they proved themselves to be even more exceptional by displaying a glimpse of their true potential. I just so happened to be discreetly observing your little test earlier, Kanzaki-san. I was suitably impressed not just by the genin themselves, but by the way they managed to pull together and work as a team despite overwhelming odds. I, speaking as Hokage of Konoha, will allow Team One to become official. If anyone would contest this decision," the Hokage paused for half a beat, "then _*****__**SHUT UP!!**__*****_"

The entire Council jumped in their seats, but remained quiet, while Hayato silently gulped and stood as still as he could. Nobody stood up to an angry Kage without _some_ fear!

"The power over Konoha's ninja force has always, and will forever remain with the Hokage," the old ninja lectured them all. "Play politics all you want, but none of you forget that if it has to do with the ninja of Konoha, my decisions are final. However."

Hayato, and most of the Council, looked up at that, wondering what next.

"Kanzaki-san," the Hokage spoke directly to the jounin, "you were given to Team One, on the _advice_ from the Council in order to complete the stated mission of ensuring the heir to the Tenshin clan was not put into needless and reckless danger. Seeing how Tenshin Kasumi performed, I would say any danger she may face, provided she is properly trained, she can handle, as a shinobi of Konoha. The question that remains is, do you want to be the one to provide that proper training?"

"Sir?" Hayato blinked, stunned. The rest of the Council started to whisper and talk amongst themselves, until the Hokage glared at them and they were immediately silenced.

"As stated, the only reason you were given Team One in the first place was because of the mission you were given by me and this Council. That mission, which you just failed, is over now. If you want, there are a couple of other available jounin still available who I know would be willing to take on a genin team for a little while. You can go back to your regular duties. If you want. Or, if you would instead prefer to retain being the Jounin Sensei for Team One, that can also be arranged," he explained.

Hayato blinked again, and thought it over. The thoughts raced back and forth at lightning speed, pros, cons, consequences, and tons of other raw data being compared and processed all at once. He couldn't base this on just one thing, or rather not just one thing. Did he really _want_ to take on a genin team? Yesterday, he would've said no, not ever. But honestly, he knew he'd just been waiting for the _right_ team. The ones that he could teach everything he'd learned, everything he knew about being a shinobi, and could work with to turn them into the next Sannins of Konoha!

There was also what he'd seen, or at least thought he'd seen. That... chakra-merge thing that had happened at the end of the fight there, when they really were going all out, that was a myth. But, if he could get them to control it, get them to make it happen at will... that would be worth almost any amount of grief. The downsides also had to be considered though. Such as the fact that he had the village pariah, a 'True Martial Artist' and one of the nobles all on the same team. One contained the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune. One wanted to do nothing more than fight and always with a stronger opponent. The last was someone he'd spent the day antagonizing and was a clan princess!

. . .

Who was he kidding, all the rest of it just made it sound that much better to him!

"Thank you for the offer, Hokage-sama," Hayato finally replied to the leader of the village. "I gladly accept the position as Jounin Sensei to Team One."

"Very well then," the Hokage smiled proudly at the young jounin, who was only 23 years old. "I'll make sure that you are permanently listed as such, and log Team One into the books. When do you believe they will be ready for accepting missions?"

"One week," Hayato answered right away with no hesitation, "I'll need at least that long to get them into shape. Sir, given that they will need outfitting for my training, as well as future missions, I request a loan of five hundred ryo to be made up within one month via mission rewards."

The Hokage looked Hayato in the eye and seemed to consider, while unpleasant whispers could be heard from the Council at this request. After a few seconds, the Hokage nodded, then replied, "I believe that given the fact that your mission placed unneeded stress on your team and potentially damaged the trust between Sensei and students, that is warranted. As such, I will grant you the full amount of the classified C-Rank mission payment, to do with as you see fit. No need to start putting your Team into the red so early, Kanzaki-san."

"Hokage-sama, I must protest!" one of the middle-aged Council members, a civilian merchant actually, stood up and shouted. "Kanzaki _failed_ the mission we gave him, and you're paying him anyway?! I don't see why he would need a loan at any rate!"

"Oh, you didn't read that actual mission document, did you?" the Hokage asked, his tone similar to that of a certain blond-haired Uzumaki after a successful prank.

"Because if you did, you would have read one of the mission objectives was to _test_ the genin. I made sure that there was a sub-clause in there that stated that if the genin passed and the mission was reported as a failure in regards to the primary objective, payment would still be met out, if Kanzaki's reasons for failure met to my satisfaction. Which they do, so yes, Kanzaki-san failed his mission. But he gained a great asset for Konoha in doing so. Therefore, as he _does_ require at least some basic equipment for training his new genin team, I will give him the mission payment so long as the funds are used to that end. Does that satisfy everyone?" he growled.

They all remained silent.

Hayato, while surprised, was extremely grateful to the Hokage. Unfortunately, there were still a few other things that needed to be discussed.

"Also, sir, there is also the fact that Training Field 11 was set aside for the mission, so I believe I need to..." he started to say, but all of a sudden, Hyuuga Hiashi stood up and proclaimed, "Hokage-sama, I would normally have waited until new business was announced, but I'm afraid I did not anticipate how late these proceedings would take. I have several members of my clan that have requested a number of training areas for supplemental training, and our personal grounds are not sufficient for the training in mind." The white-eyed Council member handed over a scroll to the Hokage.

Sarutobi sighed as he opened the scroll and read it. He should have known. Every single training area that _normally_ would be used to train beginning genin was on the scroll, and it was all on an official document too. He almost suspected a genjutsu, but a subtle check was all that was needed to discount that. In fact, the only areas that weren't on the list were Areas 7, 8, 9, and 10. That was only because the other graduating genin teams had already booked them for the rest of the week, and reserving training areas was done on weekly-basis, not daily. Except in Team One's case. And unfortunately, Training Area 1 was reserved for the Academy's use.

"Very well then, Hiashi," Sarutobi grumbled, putting the scroll to the side, "I will look at it later and let you know by tomorrows meeting. You were saying, Kanzaki-san?"

Hayato took a deep breath and let it out very slowly before speaking again. "As I was saying, Hokage-sama, I need to reserve a Training Area for my team and I, for at least the next month. If not longer, depending on how their initial training and later missions turn out."

The Hokage nodded, then looked down at the scheduling book for the Training Areas, handed to him by a nearby chuunin. Looking it over, Sarutobi took into account Hiashi's little list, and almost snarled in impotent anger. The only Training Areas left available to Team One were the Restricted zones, the Areas normally reserved for jounin-level training, or the crappy training fields that were in dire need of repair but hadn't been gotten around to yet. Sending Naruto and his new Teammates to one of the jounin-level areas for _training_ was out of the question, as they'd be out of their depth and could become seriously injured if they weren't careful. Resisting the urge to sigh once again, Sarutobi decided to give the ultimate decision to the team's Jounin Sensei.

"Well, Kanzaki-san, the areas that are still available are Training Areas 13, 19, 25, 26, 34, 44, and 69," the Hokage listed.

After he was done, a few of the Council members let out quiet snickers, laughing under their breath and holding their hands over their mouths as their faces turned red. Hayato, however, was giving his options some serious thought. "Training Areas 13, 19, and 34 are all under renovation, correct?" he asked out loud. The Hokage nodded in confirmation.

"So that just leaves the Swamp of Misery, the Fields of Blood, the Forest of Death, and the Mountain of Pain," he continued, seemingly talking to himself. "Hm. For what I have in mind for them, I think I should start them out in the Swamp. Lots of places for training exercises there. I'd like to go ahead and book it for the next three months, Hokage-sama."

Nobody was laughing anymore, as everyone could see that Hayato was quite serious. The Hokage smiled, and almost felt sorry for Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi. Almost. He went ahead and documented the booking and just to spite the man, he went ahead and put in all of Hiashi's reservations as well, making sure to notate that he would have to pay double the booking fee if no one showed up to actually use the areas during the designated time slots.

"Very well then," the Hokage said after he'd finished with the books, "Is there any other new business we need to discuss this evening? If not, I'm sure Kanzaki-san is free to go either way. Good luck with your team, Hayato."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Hayato bowed and quickly left the room before he could be drawn into any new issues. He was never quite sure why the Council was allowed as much power as it had, but he was glad that the Hokage was on his side this evening. He didn't want to know what would have happened if he hadn't been.

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_Training Area 25 aka "The Swamp"_

_Fifteen minutes later_

"So, uh... how long did Hayato-sensei say we had to wait?" Naruto asked, looking around at the small clearing next to a large fence identifying it as Training Area 25. They'd only gotten here thirty seconds ago, and he really wasn't too sure what they were supposed to be doing. With Iruka-sensei at the Academy, it was always sit at the desk and pay attention, or if the teacher had to step out, to do homework or reading or something like that. Being told to start training immediately wasn't very helpful to Naruto who had never really had one-on-one training before.

"He didn't," Ryu answered. "But he did say that we should go ahead and begin training before he gets here. I also seem to recall him saying something about chakra control exercises. Kasumi?"

"Yep, I heard that too," she smiled. "But also that we have to work on our chakra reserves too."

Ryu grumbled and gave her a withering look.

"Well, we should all work on chakra control," she stated. "That's the way ninjutsu works, through chakra control. A ninja with lots and lots of chakra is next to useless if he can't control any of it. But, Hayato-sensei did also... _suggest_ that we should see if there are any other jutsu we might be able to share between the three of us. Since it worked out pretty well yesterday that is."

"Yeah! That's a great idea!" Naruto was always enthusiastic to learn new jutsu.

"What _I'd_ like to know is how you managed to pull off the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone technique) after just learning the seals and how the basics work!" Ryu exclaimed to Naruto.

"I'd... also be interested in learning a new jutsu. Especially one as versatile as you've shown the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shadow Clone technique) to be, Naruto," Kasumi shyly admitted. "Although, I'm afraid I'm going to have to work on building up my reserves a lot more if even half of what I've heard of it is true."

Naruto blinked, surprised. Forever and ever, as far as he was concerned, ever since he'd started at the Academy and before, he'd always begged and pleaded to learn cool jutsu and how to be a better ninja. Time after time, he was either ignored, insulted, or punished in some way. Then there were the times where he'd found something he thought was cool and when he tried to show it or even share it with someone else, they either stole it, or treated the discovery like garbage, simply because it was in his hands. Now, all of a sudden, starting with his third failure of the Academy Exams, he'd learned a B-Class clone technique, an S-Class kinjutsu, an A-Class ninjutsu, and developed another two D and C-Class jutsu. He'd joined a team and had two teammates that actually _liked_ him and a Jounin Sensei that was a powerful ninja and looked it, whom had passed them and was now their permanent sensei! And now here he was with his teammates, that did not hate him, who were _asking_ him to show them his techniques!

"You... you guys want to learn my techniques?" he stuttered, blinking back moisture from his eyes.

Ryu frowned slightly, recalling how he'd sounded the evening before when Kasumi had just asked _what_ he knew, not to show them both how to do all his jutsu, but he could understand how Naruto might feel that would be an invasion of privacy. At the same time, however, he felt it extremely unfair that they give the blond all the help he needs and he give nothing back in return.

Kasumi on the hand had a clue or two about what her teammate was feeling and just smiled and nodded in answer to his question.

Naruto's face suddenly broke out in a wide grin and he shouted, "YEAH! Of course I'll teach you guys the _Kage Bunshin_ and _Shuriken Kage Bunshin_! I'd be honored!" He was almost laughing with how good he felt. "OK, first up," he made the cross-seal and shouted, "_KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_!" Five clones to either side suddenly exploded into existence in clouds of white smoke.

"Uh, we'll need more than just the seals, Naruto," Kasumi blushed, but grinning at the blond's happy mood. "Like, how exactly do you focus the chakra?"

"And how much chakra do you put into each clone?" Ryu asked.

"And why do you use that specific seal? I'd always assumed that the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ required more hand seals than just the one like that," Kasumi pointed out.

Naruto blinked, then blushed bright red, scratching the back of his head, while all the clones looked halfway between embarrassed and confused. "Uh, well, the scroll explained it like this..." He then went into a rather basic explanation of the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ and how he'd gone about experimenting with it and learning mostly through trial and error. He went into all of his failed attempts at creating clones during that evening while he'd been waiting for Mizuki to meet with him. Then he explained how he'd gone and finally succeeded.

Kasumi then turned the discussion around and explained how he had probably been using roughly ten times the amount of chakra needed to make it work, and because his control wasn't that of a jounin's, he seemed to manage one clone for the amount of chakra that would normally be given to create ten or twenty clones. They both spent several minutes probing him and asking detailed questions, which Naruto, or his clones all answered as best they could, very eager to please. Kasumi didn't quite trust that she had the level of chakra to safely create a _Kage Bunshin_ just yet, but Ryu was cocky enough that he wanted to give it a try. Besides, neither of them were about to try the S-Classed variation, the _Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu_(Mass Shadow Clone Technique), but Ryu felt he would be safe with one or two clones.

Ryu and Kasumi then continued to engage Naruto in discussion, this time asking him about the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. "Oh, that's easy, you just make a shadow clone of the shuriken!" Naruto enthusiastically answered. Kasumi sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she began to ask detailed questions of Naruto and his clones about how he'd first performed the jutsu. As Naruto explained how he, or rather how his clones, had just tried tossing the shuriken up in the air first and then trying the jutsu rather than throwing it first, and a few other tidbits, Kasumi and Ryu both followed along, and were quickly learning thanks to Naruto's provided knowledge and other tidbits of information. Ryu then announced that the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ could actually be used for more than just shuriken, using the same seals and the same basic principal. Kunai, for example, same six seals, but called the _Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu _(Kunai Shadow Clone technique). It was even possible to use it with senbon needles even! By the time both Kasumi and Ryu were done pumping Naruto for information, over half an hour had passed, and very little physical training had been done.

"OK, as informative as this has been," Kasumi interrupted the discussion of techniques, "we've really got to get started on chakra control exercises here. So, Naruto, what chakra control techniques do you know already? Ryu, same question. Maybe we can trade these techniques before we get into the high-level stuff."

Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his scalp while staring at the ground. His clones avoided even looking in his teammates direction, some even whistling while staring at the clouds.

"Naruto?" Kasumi questioned.

"Uh... the one you taught me yesterday, which is the same one Iruka-sensei tried to teach me in the Academy," the blond finally admitted, touching his fingertips together much like a lavender-eyed Hyuuga.

Kasumi and Ryu sweat-dropped. Getting back to their feet, Ryu shouted, "You've GOT TO BE _KIDDING __**ME**_!! You can do the _Kage Bunshin _and _Shuriken Kage Bunshin_ and the only chakra control exercise you even know is the Leaf Floating exercise Kasumi taught you yesterday!"

Blushing, Naruto timidly nodded his head.

Kasumi sighed and held her head in her hand while Ryu started ranting and raving about the unfairness of the life, Kami, the universe, Fate, and everything in between. Letting him rant for a little while, Kasumi took Naruto aside and attempted to explain what he'd been missing out on for the past few years apparently.

"All right Naruto," Kasumi began, "You remember what I showed you yesterday?"

Naruto grinned and nodded. "Yep! You showed me how to do the leaf-floating exercises, which is done by pushing chakra out of the body in concentrated bursts, most of the time at just one point, but it can also be done over the whole body, which is how we beat Hayato-sensei yesterday!"

"Close enough," she grinned back. "The next step of the leaf-floating, is actually the leaf-sticking exercise. It's usually done by sticking a leaf to the center of your forehead and then holding it there with chakra. Of course, as with the leaf-floating exercise, this can be done anywhere on the body. The way you do this is by channeling your chakra into the object, in this case a leaf, and then pull the chakra, and the object, back into your body. It requires greater control, but it's easier and a lot less painful than the next couple of exercises. Here, go ahead and try it out," she handed him a leaf off the ground.

Grumbling, Naruto put the leaf to his forehead, only to blink in surprise as he remembered his headband was in the way. Sighing, he undid his symbol of being a Konoha ninja, and then tied it around his left bicep, before going and putting the leaf to his forehead. He scrunched his face up in concentration, but after about ten seconds, an errant breeze blew the leaf off his forehead, and he cried out in frustration.

"That's OK, Naruto," Kasumi calmed him down. "Remember, you couldn't get the leaf-floating exercise immediately either. Speaking of which, why don't you go ahead and create a few clones to start practicing that while you work on the new exercise, like Hayato-sensei suggested, OK?"

Naruto silently nodded and did just that, creating another ten shadow clones, who all went around and picked up leafs and started floating them above the palms of their hands. The first ten he'd created as demonstration for the_ Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ were still around, but they were horsing around with Ryu at the moment, apparently he was taking his frustrations about Naruto being a gifted idiot on them as ready targets.

Kasumi sighed, seeing that they were all using about ten times the needed chakra and it was covering their entire arms instead of just the spot on their palms. She finally dragged Ryu away from the clones to take over for her while she went to correct the exercising Naruto clones. Naruto looked up, then shrugged and went back to concentrating on the leaf that he was holding to his forehead.

"You know, I don't think you're supposed to hold it there with your finger," Ryu teased.

"Oh yeah, well let's see you do this then!" Naruto cried out, frustrated. Ryu then picked up another leaf, put it on the back of his un-gloved hand, and then blew on it. The edges of the leaf flipped up and fluttered, but it was as though he'd glued it to the back of his hand for the most part. Naruto blinked, then huffed in annoyance and concentrated harder, letting go of the leaf with his finger.

"You could be helping me, you know," Naruto grumbled at the boy.

"Well, first of all, are you actually pushing any chakra to your forehead at all?" Ryu asked.

Frowning in concentration, Naruto formed the Ram seal and focused inward. A few seconds later the leaf was blasted off his forehead like he'd thrown it as a shuriken. "Aw man..."

"Here," Ryu put a new leaf on his forehead, but there was so much chakra being exuded at the moment, he couldn't quite make it connect, "try again. This time, don't push so much chakra out. Use barely any at all, then sort of... wrap it around the leaf, like when you use your hand to pick up something and pull it towards you. You don't focus on each muscle in your hand doing the job, you just move your hand and pick up whatever and then pull on it. That's all the thought needed for this, now you just need to figure out how to tell that to your body. Or your chakra in this case."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes again. A few seconds later, Ryu could put the leaf on the blond's forehead, and it did not immediately fall off. It did begin to succumb to gravity, only Naruto's sweat and skin keeping it on for the moment, until he finally figured it out and felt his chakra grab hold of the leaf and pull it tight against his skin. He could have pulled tighter, but Naruto had long since learned the lesson to never pull or push on something _too_ hard, otherwise that something would break. He kept it up for a solid minute, but began to feel the strain, as this was an unfamiliar way of using his chakra and it was taking him some effort to keep it up. Kind of like holding up a marble in the palm of your hand when your arm is fully outstretched.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Ryu approved, seeing the blond continue into the second minute. "Ready for the real test?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, unsure of what he was asking.

"Want me to blow on it, see if you've got a firm enough grip on it?" he clarified.

"Oh, uh, yeah sure," Naruto shrugged, maintaining his concentration. Ryu blew hard on the leaf, and Naruto almost lost it right then. It was one thing to just keep the leaf in one spot when it was already sticking to sweat and skin, but quite another when another force acted to move it away from that grip! Still, he caught it and kept his grip firm, the leaf barely fluttered at all.

"Good job," Ryu said. "Now create another bunch of clones and have them work on the same thing. Try different body parts, just to make sure you can do it. Kasumi! Ready for the next exercise over here!" Naruto created another ten clones, who picked up a leaf each and started working on keeping the leafs attached to his bare skin without it blowing off, or ripping itself to shreds.

"Wow, already?" Kasumi asked, seeing that indeed, Naruto had completed the basic exercise, although he was still using way too much chakra. Looks like he was ready for the next step.

"Ryu, this might be one you're familiar with already," she said. "The tree-climbing exercise, though calling it that is something of a misnomer. First of all, you don't just climb a tree, you do it without using your hands."

"Huh? How can you do that? Or do you just jump up onto the branches?" Naruto asked.

Kasumi shook her head, then shrugged, "Well, no not really. It's actually better to call it surface-climbing, or wall-walking, as it allows you to walk along any vertical or even inverted surface the same way you walk on the ground. At the same time, this helps train your leg muscles and chakra coils to channeling chakra in such a way that it can greatly improve the maximum output of your jumps and in running as well."

"Huh?" Naruto's eyes glazed over.

"She means that you climb the tree with your feet by walking straight up it, and after you complete it, you can run on walls and even stand on ceilings, plus it helps when you channel chakra into your legs to make you jump higher as well as run faster," Ryu translated.

"Oh, well, why didn't you just say so?" Naruto gave Kasumi a look. She sighed, then began explaining how to do the exercise.

"First of all, you channel chakra to the bottom of your feet. When your feet touches the tree, push your chakra into the tree trunk and then do the same thing that you do in the leaf-sticking exercise, but if you hold it too long or too tightly or use too much chakra, then you'll fall from the tree. You have to time holding the chakra and then letting it go with each of your steps. This is more advanced than the leaf-sticking, because with that you're working with a light weight object that you can shield from outside forces. In the tree-climbing exercise, you're fighting gravity and your own weight."

"Yeah, so you might want to get a running start," Ryu suggested.

Naruto nodded in understanding. He formed the Ram seal again, and a small circular wave of chakra flew out from his feet, blowing the grass back from him. Then he ran towards the closest tree and put his foot on it and started running. He made it five steps before he slipped and fell back to the ground.

"Naruto!" Kasumi rushed forward.

"Ow. I'm all right," he sat up, rubbing his backside. "What did I do wrong?"

"Looks like you didn't channel enough chakra to your feet, or you let go too soon," Ryu advised. "Don't think too hard. Just remember, to channel a steady flow of chakra to both of your feet, then run it like your running on ice, or a greasy floor. Learn to anticipate when to apply chakra and then release it. And... I wouldn't have shadow clones do this one just yet. Not until you can do it without falling too hard that is."

Realizing what he meant, Naruto grinned sheepishly and nodded his head in agreement. Then he got back up and started over again. Naruto getting an average twenty or thirty feet up his tree before losing his grip, but at least he'd started catching himself, digging his feet in with even more chakra until the bark snapped and holding still until he was sure of his footing, then running back down to start running up all over again.

Naruto quickly turned his full attention to running up the tree as fast as he could, paying close attention to how the chakra behaved in his feet. After another fifty or more tries and another hour, Naruto finally made it all the way to the top of the tree without slipping or blasting himself off even once. Then he ran all the way back down, also without slipping. Smiling to himself, confident that he couldn't have gotten it so fast without Kasumi and Ryu's help.

Finally, it happened that he got almost to the top of the tree without falling even once, so just to be sure, he walked/jogged back down the tree, fighting gravity the whole way, but he managed to stay on the tree, though he felt that Ryu was right. It was like walking on a greasy floor, you had to watch your step, otherwise you could slip and fall all too easily.

"Good job!" Ryu congratulated him. Naruto grinned and soaked up the praise.

"Now create at least ten more shadow clones to keep doing it while we move on to the next exercise," the black-clad boy grinned.

Frowning, Naruto created the clones and turned expectantly to Kasumi, after a brief glare sent in Ryu's direction that is. "Come on," she gestured to them, "Hayato-sensei told us where we need to go. I'll explain on the way."

"Huh?" they both grunted.

"When did he do that?" Ryu asked.

"He called this place the _Swamp_, remember?" she smiled back at him, right before jumping the fence.

Sharing a look, they both shrugged, leaving behind all the exercising clones and followed the redhead.

"I know how the water-walking exercise is supposed to go, but unfortunately I haven't completely mastered it just yet," Ryu informed Kasumi.

She nodded. "I've been able to perform the water-walking exercise since I was about ten years old, but then I've always had trouble with the tree-climbing exercises. Everyone is unique," she assured them both.

"Now, Naruto, as Ryu already told us, the next exercise is called the water-walking exercise. It's like the leaf-floating exercise, the same way tree-climbing was like the leaf-sticking exercise. Only a lot more advanced. I can't believe we're actually going through all of these in one morning!"

"Hey, he's the Energizer Bunny of chakra," Ryu joked, and Naruto laughed while Kasumi smiled. "Seriously though, Naruto, just because you can _do_ the exercises does not mean you've mastered them. Believe me, I know. You need to do all of these exercises every day, without fail, otherwise you won't see hardly any improvement at all. I have to train myself tirelessly, getting up early to do my own exercises, and staying out late to work on martial arts and physical training. You're going to have to start doing the same."

"Right," Naruto nodded, grim-faced and serious.

"OK, here's how the exercise goes, Naruto," Kasumi began to explain once they'd arrived at the pond of foul-smelling and green-colored water. "Water, unlike trees or walls, is a fluid. If you stay in one spot too long while standing on it or put too much pressure, you'll fall in. What you do is you push chakra out from the bottom of your feet and then keep channeling it so that you create a sort of cushion, or rather a chakra-laced bottom to your shoes. The trick is that you're not standing on the water, but on the surface tension of the water, and if you use too much energy, the chakra breaks through the surface of the water and that will pierce the surface tension and you'll fall in. Too little and your weight will overcome your chakra cushion and you'll fall in anyway."

"Problem is that like Kasumi here said, water is fluid, the surface is constantly shifting and changing how much surface tension it has and what might be too much one second might not be enough the next, so you kind of have to keep adjusting it constantly, unlike with the tree, which is always the same," Ryu added.

"And I really don't think you want to fall into that," Kasumi pointed at the rotten egg scented water.

Naruto scowled, grossed out, but resolved to do this. Taking a few seconds to concentrate his chakra, he stepped out onto the swamp water pond and actually took a few steps, only a couple of rings flowing out along the top of the water to show his presence at all. Fifteen seconds and five steps in, Naruto paused and turned around, his face etched with concentration and focus. "Whoa..." he said, windmilling his arms as he tried to maintain his balance. "This is harder than I thought it would be," he told them.

"Tried to warn you," Ryu told him. "Like I said, even I have trouble with this exercise, but then again I use pool water instead of smelly swamp water..."

Naruto began to sweat after a full minute of standing still on the surface of the water. After about five minutes of standing perfectly still, his eyes snapped open and he quickly stepped towards the shore, just in time too apparently, as on the last step, his foot sunk about half an inch, but he pulled it out in time. "Whew! That was close. Now what?"

"What do you think?" Ryu grinned at him.

Grumbling, Naruto merely made the seal and roughly fifteen clones popped into existence along the path with them. None of the clones looked too pleased with the purpose for which they'd been created.

"Huh? Why the extra clones, Naruto?" Kasumi asked him.

Naruto shrugged, then grimaced as he replied, "Well, I figure, given how hard this is, at least a few of my clones are going to fall in at some point, and quite frankly, I'd rather they just dispel themselves then have to deal with smelling like... _that_ for however long until Hayato-sensei gets here. Plus, for the past five minutes, three of my clones doing the tree-climbing exercise have popped, and I wasn't there to see them pop, but I know they did."

Ryu and Kasumi both blinked in surprise, not really getting what he was telling them, but surprised nonetheless. "I figured out just a little while ago that when I make shadow clones and they disappear, I know what they know! That's why, I figure, Hayato-sensei's been making me use shadow clones all morning, so that all the training they're doing, it's like I'm doing it too!"

"OK, now I _really_ want to learn _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_," Ryu and Kasumi said together.

"First thing's first though," Kasumi got a steely look in her eyes. "Chakra reserve and endurance training. Which means that we have to start doing these same chakra control exercises along with Naruto. Although... given how much chakra using _Kage Bunshin_ would take, even just using that technique just once and then spend some time recuperating while just doing basic exercises could do just as much as a full day of chakra control exercises."

"So, we go and start learning the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_?" Ryu asked, just to clarify.

Kasumi nodded her head with conviction.

"Naruto, you might want to create a few more clones, just to do more exercises," Ryu suggested. Then he suddenly brightened and smiled. "Besides, I just thought of one more exercise that you might be interested in learning today."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion.

They quickly headed back to the clearing, where Naruto created another twenty or so clones to fill in for the ones that had dispelled already, half resuming tree-climbing, the other half working on the leaf exercises some more.

"Come on, Naruto," Ryu quickly dragged the real one off to the side. "Kasumi, why don't you help me out here. Grab a kunai and some shuriken. OK, what I'm going to show you, most people figure out on their own and develop their own style to it. I'm doing this mostly just to make sure you have your own version of it."

Naruto nodded, paying avid attention to his teammate.

"You of course know how to channel chakra into your weapons, or other objects you're holding, right?"

Naruto nodded and then pulled out a single kunai and demonstrated that he could do just that.

"Great! Now, something that I've figured out in my own training, when you channel chakra into a thrown weapon, like a kunai, or even shuriken, that weapon tends to go a lot further a _lot_ faster than if you just threw it with all you strength normal. You'd have to talk to somebody that cares to find out why, I just noticed that that's what happens. Sometimes, still haven't figured out the trick yet, but sometimes if you channel the chakra in a specific way when you throw it, you can control how it behaves in flight. Like say you know your target is going to dodge right as soon as you throw the kunai. Most would just throw a second kunai in the direction he'll dodge to, but if you do it right, you can get it so that the kunai _turns_ to the right just as the target dodges, so he's pretty much dodging right _into_ the kunai! But like I said, I haven't figured out how to do that myself yet..." But Naruto wasn't listening anymore.

"_KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_ (Shadow Clone Technique)!!" he screamed, and a solid hundred clones popped into existence, in trees, on free ground space, everywhere. Moments later they dashed off, into the Swamp, or other clearings, a few even snuck off to the official target-range Naruto frequented. All for the express purpose of learning and testing out this new technique!

"Uh, Naruto... what...???" Kasumi gasped in awe.

Naruto turned and grinned wide, scratching the back of his neck in mild embarrassment. "I really want to figure out how to do this weapon-control-chakra technique Ryu just showed me here! If I can do that with my _Shuriken Kage Bunshin_ (Shuriken Shadow clones) that will be _awesome_! So, I'm making as many clones as I possibly can so I can figure out how to do it myself!"

"See, told you, scary," Ryu grinned at the kunoichi.

"Even so, let's work on our own techniques for a bit, Ryu," Kasumi grimaced at the genin. "Wouldn't want Naruto getting too far ahead now, would we?"

Startled, Ryu just nodded and the two began to experiment with performing the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. Before they could get too far into experimenting though, Hayato finally showed up, having taken the long way to give the team time to talk and get to know one another better. Seeing them work on the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ was exactly what he was hoping would happen. Unfortunately for them, he couldn't allow them to spend the day playing with such a potentially debilitating technique. Neither one of them were ready for it just yet. He quickly shunshined into the middle of the clearing with no other warning besides the leaves kicking up.

"While I'm glad that you followed my advice, this is not what I meant when I said that I wanted to see you lot training!" he chuckled the moment he fully materialized.

"AAAHH! Hayato-sensei!" they all three shouted in surprise. "DON'T DO THAT!!" Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu all roared at him.

He grinned, unrepentant. "Hm... Seems we need to work on your awareness too," he noted. "Still, I'm glad to see that you all followed my advice. Good job on figuring out how your technique really works, Naruto. Kasumi, Ryu, good job on teaching him, excellent progress. But it seems you two have been neglecting your own training, as well as the endurance training I also advised. And we can't leave the real Naruto all by his lonesome while his clones do all the work, now can we?"

All three genin felt like gulping at that moment. Naruto succumbed to the temptation, a little.

"Let's start by doing a few things to put all your training so far to good use while we work on everyone's stamina and endurance, all right?" Hayato grinned sadistically down at them.

"This is so not fair," Ryu moaned. "He's got inhuman stamina and endurance and he takes a licking and keeps on ticking _AND_ he can create hundreds of shadow clones at a time! How is this fair?!"

"Because you'll be running on the top of that," Hayato pointed to the barbed wire fence with all the 'Danger', 'No Trespassing' and 'Warning' signs on it. "This Training Area is roughly three and a half square miles altogether, and the fence runs unbroken along the border of it. Quick bit of math, what is the length of the fence that wraps around an irregular three and a half square mile area?"

After a beat or two, Hayato leaned forward and grinned sadistically at them and answered, "You're about to find out. Heheheheh..."

(Play "Team One Training")

_Two Hours Later_

_Training Area 25 aka "The Swamp"_

"GAAAHH!" Naruto let out a cry as he dropped to the ground in exhaustion, only having enough energy to keep breathing, nothing else. Behind him, Kasumi and Ryu had both dropped in similar conditions a few minutes before, Ryu only a bit better off by having enough energy to go from a face-plant, which is where he'd fallen, to laying on his back.

"Wow," the real Hayato commented from his sitting position by the fence as his three shadow clones, and all of Naruto's disappeared. "So, you do have a limit to your endurance. Not bad kid. Not bad at all."

Naruto just kept breathing, not bothering with replying to the compliment.

"OK, Princess and Ryu-kun get another half an hour break. Naruto, you only get a fifteen, because those two stayed on the fence until they finally collapsed from exhaustion, and you kept falling off and had to keep climbing back up. After your rest we're going to try something a little different here. Enjoy your break!"

Somehow they all found enough energy to lift their heads and glare at their sadistic Jounin Sensei. Then collapsed all over again to conserve their energy.

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto was standing without any support, in fact he was helping Kasumi to remain standing, and Ryu was managing well enough, though he was crouched over holding himself up by his knees most often. Hayato stood before them with his arms crossed and his same sadistic smirk, glaring at them from beneath his headband.

"Here's where I teach you rookies something you didn't know," he said. "Any time you get into a fight, count on wearing yourself out before the fight is finished. Or even better, by the time you exhaust all your chakra in one fight, you have a whole new fight with a fresh opponent on your hands. Sometimes you're the fresh one, but nine times out of ten in this line of business, you are going to be the one at the disadvantage."

"You don't get half hour or even fifteen minute breaks in the real world!" he told them. "So, first rule of fighting in the real world, _DON'T WASTE ENERGY_! Either physical stamina or chakra. If you make an attack, make damn well sure that it hits and that it does enough damage to finish the fight on the first hit. I guarantee you that you'll either miss or the other guy will shrug it off like it's nothing! So _NEVER_ put everything you have into one single attack, at the beginning or end of a fight, doesn't matter, just _NEVER_ do it! Rule number two, in practice and training, don't ever hold anything back. Training is not real life. Training is getting you ready for real life. Harder you work in training, less you'll have to worry about in real life."

"Rule number three, don't believe anything at face value. Always confirm and then triple-check your confirmation before trusting that it is what it is. Helps in identifying genjutsu and other illusions, but also just good advice to live by, especially when dealing with ninja. Rule number four, always work as a team. These are some of my personal rules that I like to live by. Follow them and you'll probably live to become jounin."

"Now comes the fun part of what I'm going to show you rookies," Hayato turned and walked to the fence, going over to where there was a gate to allow pedestrian entry leading to a path that went deeper into the training area. "Starting tomorrow, we will all meet here at 6 AM in the morning."

"What?!" Ryu and Naruto exclaimed. Kasumi knew better than to say anything to a sadist.

"You heard me," he grinned at them, "Six o'clock in the morning. That's not wake up, get ready and leave by. It's _be_ _here by_ 6 AM, tomorrow and every day of the week following! You will then begin a conditioning program that I am going to show you, and you will follow that program for three hours straight, until right around this time. After that, we'll go out and get breakfast together."

All three genin felt their jaws drop to the ground and their eyes go wide enough they were in danger of having their eyeballs roll out of the sockets. Kasumi recovered first.

"You... you cannot be serious!" she gasped. "We're genin! And I don't care if that conditioning program you came up with is just balancing on rocks doing handstands, there's no way that we can handle that kind of work so soon!"

"Yeah, not even my father, or Kasumi-hime's brother works us _that_ hard! My dad always makes me stretch for a few minutes and then keep the training to an hour or two," Ryu added.

"What kind of... program are you talking about?" Naruto innocently asked. Kasumi and Ryu stared.

"Simply put, it combines endurance training with chakra control exercises alongside chakra building exercises too. You start by going to the middle of the Swamp here, then you use the water-walking technique to stand on the swamp water, which incidentally has trees growing out of it. Then you run across the water until you get to one of the trees, jump up on it and run all the way to the top, then you run all the way back down, run across the water to another tree, run all the way up it, and then all the way back down and repeat. You will also be doing the leaf exercises at the same time. Sticking leaves to your forehead, the back of your hands, your chest, and the middle of your back, while floating another set of leaves in each of your palms. This exercise will be known as 'Reps'. It will be measured out in the times you complete running up and down the tree and then across the water to the next tree. If you can't do just as many Reps in one hour by next week as what you do in three today, I will be sorely disappointed. By the way, it doesn't count as completing if you don't make it all the way to the very top of the tree. Now, follow me and I'll show you where you will be spending the rest of the day."

He lead them along the cleared path into the swamp, and Team One dared not hesitate in following, for fear of what he would have them do if they were not right behind him the whole way. Half an hour later, at brisk walking pace, they arrived at the center of the Swamp, where they found a large tree-filled lake with a stone platform at the exact center, each block about a full square meter, the platform arranged in a square of 20 by 20. Hayato lead them across the water, and allowed Naruto to create clones to help Ryu and Kasumi as needed. Finally, they got there, and Hayato was standing there waiting, at the exact center of the stone platform where four of the blocks were raised a little higher.

"You will be here, on this platform, by no later than 6:05 AM every morning, starting tomorrow. I'll meet you here, and if I've been impressed _and_ if you're on time, I'll probably have some rations for you to eat. That's mostly so you'll get used to the taste before you're forced to eat them on missions. Starting from this central location you can go out and find the trees you're going to run Reps on. Another exercise that I'll have you all actually doing tomorrow, and be grateful it's not for today, is what I like to call 'Revolutions'. Reason for this is has to do with the fact that you will be revolving around this platform while you do this exercise, which has more to do with physical conditioning, and a little trick you can do with chakra that I'll be showing all of you this afternoon, after lunch."

"Before I forget, a Revolution is when all three of you, working together, carry that log," he pointed to an uprooted tree trunk that was sticking up out of the water but had surprisingly little moss covering it, "in a spiraling circle around the Swamp. Trick is, and I tested this myself, that log is so heavy that it overwhelms the amount of chakra you would normally use in the water-walking exercise. Here's where the trick I'll teach you will come in handy, because there are parts of this area where the water runs pretty damn deep. So I'll be teaching you three ways to use chakra to better hold your breath, see underwater, and in dire circumstances, even convert swallowed water into oxygen. You're certainly allowed to use the water-walking technique in Revolutions," he said to their despairing faces, "but like I said, it's not actually possible for you just yet. And you _will have to_ complete one entire Revolution carrying that log, no matter what. I just don't want you three to drown, that's all."

"Oh," he said, almost as though it were an afterthought, "almost forgot. Lunch will only come to those who earn it. I want all three of you to _complete_ no less than 100 Reps before noon. If you don't, you don't get lunch."

"WHAT??" they all three screamed, each of them exhausted beyond anything they'd ever believed.

They were glaring at him anew, but he didn't care, tossing out three boxes of ration bars of flavors they really didn't want to look at. "Here," he said, "I realize that you're running a little low on energy, and you don't get Soldier Pills until _after_ you've completed your first mission, so eat up and get to it!"

Frowning, but seeing no way out for the moment, they each tore open the wrappers and ate the bars as quickly as they could in efforts to skip tasting the Kami-awful things. Feeling that they would need all the energy they could get, they all finished off the entire boxes of ration bars, which thankfully only contained six each. Then they gave one final glare to their sensei before jumping out onto the water and started running for the closest set of trees, which really did grow right out of the water!

Naruto was a bit unsteady, still being new to the technique, and Ryu was also watching his steps, having admitted earlier that he hadn't fully mastered this particular technique. Taking a few seconds to get their footing, they all started running and jumped up to the trunks of their various trees, seeing how the roots were several feet high before converging into the trunk. They then took a moment to grasp their footing on the vertical surface before they started running as fast as they could up the tree.

"Don't forget the leaves!" Hayato called to remind them.

Grumbling, they each paused at the branches of the trees and pulled off several leaves, which they each placed on the designated parts of their body; one on the back of each hand, one in the middle of their chest, one on the forehead, and one in the middle of their back, and then another two to float in the palm of each hand. Naruto almost fell once he had all of the leaves sticking plus himself to the tree, but he managed to catch himself. The real trouble came when he tried to do the floating exercise at the same time.

One tree over, Kasumi was already racing to the top once more, the leaves in place, but on the other side, Ryu actually skidded down the trunk a few feet only just managing to catch himself. He stood there for a minute, waiting to make sure he was steady before taking another step. At least the leaves were all in place.

Once Naruto had the leaves both floating and sticking, he decided to go ahead and start running up the tree again, only for his foot to slip as he didn't push enough chakra to his feet. The next instant, he was falling!

"Ahhhh!" he screamed, falling away from the tree so he couldn't get his grip back.

"Naruto!" Kasumi screamed, seeing him fall.

There was a splash and a small fountain in the water that soon settled to reveal Naruto floating, ironically with the leaves still sticking. Hayato looked over and commented, "Remember, no lunch if you don't complete 100 Reps before noon!"

Naruto looked up and glared at his sensei, his resolve strengthening even more. With a small jump, he was back up on the water and running at the tree, making sure all his leaves were in place, and then he concentrated on the floating exercise once again and jumped up, this time making extra sure to keep the chakra going to his feet for the tree climbing technique as he leapt back up onto the tree. Within seconds he was running full speed up the tree, the leaves fluttering along his body, but staying tight, and the two in his palms remained one centimeter from his skin at all times, no matter how it was disturbed.

Ryu, seeing this, grinned and resolved himself not to fall behind and resumed his own trek up the tree.

Kasumi, relieved that her teammate was alright, if just a bit wet and stinky now, walked the last few steps before jogging back down the other side. She wasn't going to lose either, but she knew that she couldn't match even Ryu's chakra reserves, let alone Naruto's Kage-level chakra. So she had to go slower and keep a careful eye on her own chakra output and reserves and make sure she didn't run out.

It wasn't exactly a rare thing, to experience chakra exhaustion during training, which usually dropped you to where you couldn't even move, let alone perform any more jutsu! Kasumi herself had experienced it only once and had to spend two weeks bedridden, all because she'd used a high level clan technique that she wasn't ready for. Hopefully, with this training, she soon would be.

For the next solid hour, Team One did nothing but run up and down the trees of the Swamp, often making sure that the leaves were still in place. It soon became a repetition, and only the strain of running and readjusting chakra output kept it from being too boring and dull. Run up the tree, run down the tree, run across the water to another tree, run up the tree, run down the tree, run across the water to another tree and repeat.

Unfortunately all three of them fell from the trees more than once, and of course one or more of the leaves would be lost and need to be replaced, especially the two in their palms that they had to maintain with the leaf-floating exercise. Kasumi began to run low on chakra near the end of the hour, but Naruto bolstered her up, and she just kept a tighter rein on it and advised the same back to Ryu and Naruto. Ryu made sure to heed this advice, as neither he nor Kasumi had the seemingly infinite amount of chakra that Naruto displayed.

Naruto began to get the hang of each of the exercises after the first few times, but it wasn't until they'd been at it for just over two hours that he really began to get it. Before that, he'd always fumble a bit in the transition from climbing to water-walking and vice versa, not to mention keeping the leaves attached. Finally, though, he began to feel the difference and the understanding of exactly how to channel his chakra through his body for each of these techniques became so clear. It wasn't a conscious effort anymore, it was just 'keep the leaves stuck (here)', 'keep the leaf floating', 'climb the tree', and 'walk on the water'. It became so familiar that he almost began to wonder why he hadn't always known how to do it.

Approaching noon, Naruto and Ryu both began to realize something very important. They'd all been subconsciously keeping track of how many Reps they had each completed. Naruto was sort of in the middle, with Ryu having completed 79 Reps, and Naruto had only just completed his 75th, but Kasumi was only on her 70th at that moment. And they were running out of time!

"Come on Kasumi-chan!" Naruto shouted as he passed her on his own tree, "We're running out of time here! We need to kick it up a notch!"

"He's right," Ryu added from a short distance away, running on the water, "So how about we make it a race? Loser pays for lunch for the whole week, and has to let the winners use their family training grounds for the same. Screw the 100 limit, we're all going to pass that marker, so whichever two have the highest wins!"

"Wait, but... I don't have any family training grounds..." Naruto pointed out.

"Then you'd better not lose!" Ryu grinned, running even faster up his tree.

Naruto scrunched his face up with resolve at the challenge and put some real speed into completing his Reps. Kasumi, seeing the competitive nature of the boys, giggled, but resolved herself and put a little more effort into her steps. She still kept a tight rein on her chakra flow, but her legs were moving a lot faster all of a sudden. She very quickly began to pull ahead in the impromptu race, doing one and a half Reps for each one the boys completed.

Seeing this, each of them pushed themselves even harder until all three genin were pretty much running up and down at the same pace. By the time noon finally rolled around, the Rep count came down to Naruto 117, Ryu 119, and Kasumi 115, who just couldn't come back after her slower pace of before.

Hayato observed all this from his position on the platform, using the time to work on a few of his own exercises. When he finally called them all over, he had to admit, he was impressed. Not just anyone could keep up this level of training at this pace, but then again he had a kid that was being secretly trained by his father, the heir to the Mugen Tenshin Clan, and the Nine-Tails brat. No, certainly not just anyone.

"All right you three, times up!" he called them over. They immediately stopped wherever they were and headed straight for the platform, running across the water as though they'd been doing so their entire lives.

"You hit the mark, not bad," Hayato said. "Even went above and beyond and went a few Reps over 100. Keep that up and you might be competent shinobi. Someday."

(Pause "Team One Training")

They were too tired to growl, so settled for just glaring at him as they collapsed on the platform.

"I promised lunch, so here it is," he tossed them each a bento.

"Aww... couldn't we go to Ichiraku Ramen?" Naruto whined.

"Of course you can," Hayato grinned.

They all perked up, but were suspicious, and not just because they were remembering Rule #3. "We can?" Kasumi hesitantly questioned.

"Sure. You don't even have to show up at 6AM tomorrow if you don't want to. Come in at 10 or even after noon instead. Didn't anybody tell you? Participation in the Ninja Corp is entirely voluntary. So long as you complete missions and don't break any of the rules, you can spend your time how you want." Hayato explained.

Naruto blinked, wide-eyed. Kasumi and Ryu exchanged looks, confused looks.

"But..." Naruto started to ask a question.

"Remember when we were doing introductions?" Hayato interrupted. "I told you that I didn't believe in fate or destiny or any of that crap... but I do believe in consequences to a person's actions." Thus, the other ball dropped.

Naruto frowned, but did not ask his question, instead sitting down and opened up his bento and began to eat his lunch. Kasumi and Ryu quickly followed suit. Hayato laughed, but didn't bother lecturing them any further.

"After Lunch, I'll show you how to do those tricks I told you about before. Thankfully the water around the platform is cleaner than it is in the rest of the Swamp. Afterwards, you can either practice the tricks, which might be a good idea, do your own training, or do some more Reps. Oh, and Naruto... I want no less than one hundred shadow clones doing the Reps with you, for just as long as you do them."

"But Hayato-sensei...!" Kasumi protested weakly.

"Yes, Princess?" he drawled.

She glared at him and bit her tongue to keep from losing her temper. "Never mind," she quietly sat back.

"Hmph," he snorted and went back to his stage and pulled a book out of his belt. It had a dark, navy blue jacket, and on the spine they could read the title; _Advanced Physics_. They decided not to pry after hearing a strange giggle from their sensei's direction.

(Play "Team One Training")

Once they had each finished off their lunch, they took a few more minutes to rest up, doing this mostly by making the final dish last as long as they possibly could, and then they each got back to their feet and just as a precaution, stretched their legs a little. Then, Naruto created a bunch more shadow clones, then had to do it twice more as he kept missing the one hundred clone mark. Soon enough, they all spread out and started doing Reps all over again, although this time it wasn't too odd to see more than one person climbing or running down the tree while either several Narutos, or Kasumi or Ryu were climbing the same tree at the same time.

A couple hours later, Hayato called them all back over, well he called Kasumi, Ryu, and the original Naruto back over, though he had Naruto keep all his shadow clones working on Reps, saying that he needed all the work on chakra control that he could get and more! Grumbling at the comment, Naruto nevertheless joined his team on the platform while a hundred other Naruto's ran up and down the trees of the Swamp.

"You've got the exercise down well enough that I can see while you all have the chakra control of genin, you are making progress. Especially since Naruto here had _less_ than genin level chakra control when he started," Hayato teased.

"Why I oughta..." Naruto had to be physically restrained by both Ryu and Kasumi as he tried to throw himself at the jounin.

"But like I said, you've all made real progress, Naruto especially as he just jumped up in one training day from less than below average, to just above average for a genin. Or rather, I should say the high end of average, as far as chakra control goes. Which means that you're all ready to start learning those techniques I promised you this morning. It requires a certain degree of control, and the techniques will ultimately allow you to pretty much be at full effectiveness anywhere in the world, on ground, or even under water. But again, for the large part, I'm just teaching you all this so you won't drown doing Revolutions tomorrow."

Team One's genin suddenly felt the overwhelming need to gulp nervously after hearing that.

"Anyway, let's get the lecture portion out of the way first, shall we?" Hayato hurriedly moved on. "I am going to be teaching you three basic techniques. They are the **_Suichuutsuku no jutsu _****(Lit; To Breathe Underwater technique), the ****_Rikiei no jutsu_**** (Power Swimming technique), and the ****_Mizuhanpatsu no jutsu_**** (Repelling Water technique). We'll actually start with the last one, as it's very similar to a chakra control exercise all by itself. Let me demonstrate."**

**Hayato then walked over to the edge of the platform and filled his hand with water before standing back up and dripping the water over his other hand where they could see. "This is actually a step up from the Leaf Floating exercise, if that helps you any. But as you can see, normally, when water falls on your body, it drips and splatters against your skin, sometimes even being absorbed by your clothes or hair." He paused to get another handful of water. "But when you use chakra to counter the force of the falling water..." The drips of water falling to his other hand suddenly stopped or acted like they'd hit some kind of glass covering and pretty much went anywhere but on Hayato. Some drops even went back up to his other hand.**

**"The large scale of this technique is that if you're submerged underwater, you could essentially create a bubble underwater for however long your chakra holds out. If you do create such a bubble, I would advise creating it around your head and mouth as the water will automatically fill in oxygen and normal air into any bubble your chakra creates, as essentially you'll be boiling the water, without temperature changes, to create that bubble in the first place. I'll let you guys practice this for the next ten minutes before moving on to ****_Rikiei no jutsu_****. And as I just demonstrated, the water around the platform is cleaner than anywhere else in the Swamp, so don't worry about getting your hands smelly."**

**"Hai sensei," they grumbled as they walked to a different edge of the platform and started dripping water onto their arms and skin, exuding chakra in attempt to repel the water from them. Kasumi, of course, got if first and quickly told the other two what she had discovered. Ryu got it immediately after that, but Naruto needed a little bit more coaching. Finally, fifteen minutes later, Naruto had finally been able to do it with repeating results, indicating he had indeed learned the exercise.**

**"Good, now normally this is done in a swimming pool or other controlled-setting environment, but I'm not going to make you practice this just yet," Hayato said. "****_Rikiei_**** is quite simply swimming with your chakra instead of your muscles. Or rather, I should say it's when you use your chakra ****_with_**** your muscles while swimming. It's similar to repelling the water, but usually only from your feet and hands, and not at a sedate pace to create a bubble, instead in a quick and powerful jet to add force to your momentum through the water. The real trick, which can only be gained through experience, is learning how to uses these chakra jets to move through the water better than most fish can. For one thing, say you're swimming straight and going pretty fast. If you want to turn, normally you'd have to loop around the corner, or even stop to reorient yourself and then keep moving. With this, you could keep up your momentum and just blast a jet of chakra out the opposite side and you're moving in the new direction at the same speed without stopping. For the most part though, this will help you in giving you an extra bit of power when swimming, whether that's moving faster through the water, or making it to the surface to breath a second or two quicker."**

**"Lastly, we will be practicing shortly here, the ****_Suichuutsuku no jutsu_**** allows you to briefly swallow water and then using chakra to filter out and create oxygen for you to breathe. It does ****_not_**** allow you to suddenly breathe underwater constantly like a fish! This is to be considered an emergency-only technique! For one, there are dire consequences to prolonged use, such as the fact that nobody, not even Tsunade of the Sannin, an absolute ****_master_**** of chakra control, can use chakra to filter the water at 100 percent, meaning that those that are careless ****_will_**** get water in their lungs at some point and drown!"**

**Once he was sure they understood what he was saying, he nodded and sat down over the edge of the platform, his legs already in the water. "Now, get in the water and I'll show you how this is done. Practice until you can do it reliably, but do not go deeper or away from the platform. This is what I meant earlier when I said that training prepares us for real life. I can make sure none of you will drown here while making sure you learn how to do this properly."**

**An hour later, all of them had learned how to do all the techniques properly, although Naruto's control was only good enough that he could get only one good gulp of air from the water before he had to surface. Any time after that, and he got 20 percent air and 80 percent water. On the plus side though, he had the largest lung capacity of all of them, even Hayato couldn't remain underwater half as long as Naruto could, so if he ever had to get that good gulp of air he could certainly make it last.**

**Finally, around three or four in the afternoon, Hayato decided to end the training session as the genin were completely exhausted, and he wanted them to have some free time, if only for them to use it to further their own training. He ordered Naruto to dispel his clones, all of which had been working tirelessly on chakra control exercises for several hours now. **The moment he did so, the short blond stumbled a bit and grabbed his head in pain.

"Naruto? Are you all right?" Kasumi asked.

"He's fine, he's just learning the downside of creating so many clones and then dispelling them all at once," Hayato chuckled.

"Ow," Naruto whimpered, "My head hurts."

"Don't worry, kid," Hayato grinned and tossed each of them a towel, "The headache will probably disappear on it's own in about an hour or so. Anyway, we're done for the day."

"Huh?" they all said tiredly as they dried off.

"It was a good start, but tomorrow the real work begins. Take the rest of the day off. Oh, before I forget, Ryu!"

"Uh, yes sensei?" the black-clad ninja said nervously.

"I want you to help Naruto with his taijutsu. I think we can all agree that it needs just as much work as his chakra control. Do it in your own time, but I want Naruto's taijutsu skills at a solid genin level before we begin missions. Oh, and remember what I said about consequences earlier? Well, until you three meet my level of what it means to be a genin, I will not be advising that you get _any_ missions. Is that understood?"

"Hai sensei!" they snapped to attention.

"Good," he grinned wickedly at them. "Because I'm also giving you three your first homework assignment. Next time I see you all, I want _all three_ of you to be properly outfitted. That means I want you wearing and carrying as much equipment and weapons and everything else that you would be carrying on a long-term C-Rank mission. If any one of you are not even remotely close to what I consider properly outfitted, then all three of you, even if it was only one thing for one person, will do an _extra_ hundred Reps as punishment, is that understood?"

"Hai sensei!" they repeated, almost terrified by this point.

"Get out of here," he waved them off. They were gone in a flash.

(Stop "Team One Training")

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

_One Hour Later_

_Mugen Tenshin Clan Compound_

_Mugen Tenshin Dojo_

"I don't see why we had to come all the way to my house to get cleaned up," Kasumi complained as she lead the way into one of the free dojos, or training rooms. "There are public baths you know!"

"I spent the last of my money on buying my mission outfit and other gear," Ryu said, "And Naruto..."

"I spend all my money on ramen," the blond cheekily replied.

"Okaaaayy..." she trailed off, sighing before showing them the dojo.

The room was your standard martial arts dojo, with hardwood floors and tatami mats in the middle for falls and sparring. Across from the entrance was a small alter, although it might be better to call it a trophy wall, given how many weapons were placed there. There was lots of room to move around, you could even have a full-on ninja battle in here without too much trouble, although probably not with ninjutsu.

"Wow, this place is awesome!" Naruto enthused.

"Anyway, this is where we can train," Kasumi told them. "After we get cleaned up. Even if we're going to come back in here to sweat and train all over again, I'd rather get the smell of the swamp off of me before going much further."

"Yeah, we are kinda... OK, _really_ repugnant," Ryu admitted. "But that's an easy fix!"

With that said, he grabbed his right shoulder with his open hand and then tore his clothes off! Or at least that's what it looked like, as there was a sound of rustling cloth and what looked like Ryu's black clothing flying off his body, and then the next second he was standing there in a well-worn white gi, the sleeves torn off and the shirt held together with a black cloth belt at the waist. It was such a stark contrast to his all-black ninja stereotype mission clothing that they didn't recognize him at first and both his teammates spent a few minutes staring at his face.

"Whoa," Naruto finally said. "How'd you do that?"

"Huh?" Ryu, whose face was now revealed to be open, friendly and youthful, just as tanned as the rest of him, with expressive brown eyes and short brown hair. "Oh, that?" he blew a raspberry and waved the whole thing off. "It's an old ninja trick one of my uncles taught me when I was first starting out at the academy. And when I say old ninja trick, I mean _old_. As in before the Hidden Countries really existed! During that time, chakra was still a new thing and only a few really skilled ninja could perform the _henge no jutsu_ (transformation technique), so instead of changing their appearance, they just changed their clothes really fast."

"Wow, really?" Naruto was paying very close attention. Ryu just nodded his head.

"So like I said, one of my uncles taught this to me. Apparently he, or someone else he knew back when he was a genin, had heard the stories of how ninja used to just grab their current clothing and change so fast that it looked like they ripped off what they were wearing and were suddenly wearing a whole new outfit. So, using _Fuuinjutsu_, or the Sealing Arts, they figured out how to recreate it using chakra and a very simple seal that you can put on the inside of your clothing. Just apply chakra and the seal takes care of the rest."

"Teach me, teach me, teach me!" Naruto bounced up and down.

"Do you have a different outfit to change into?" Ryu teased the shorter blond.

That stopped Naruto cold, as he answered, "Uh... no... Not really."

Kasumi glared at Ryu, who sighed and shrugged before replying, "Well then, let's get that fixed then, shall we?" He then grabbed his right shoulder again and there was another rustle and a flash of white cloth and then Ryu was standing there in his black 'Mission' clothes again. He reached behind into his ninja gear pack on his belt, and pulled out a small scroll, which he quickly unfurled.

It was a scroll of seals, storage seals to be specific. He unfurled the scroll quite a bit until he apparently found the specific seal that he was looking for, and then pricked a scab on his arm to get a drop of blood, formed three quick hand seals, and then spread the drop of blood on the specified seal. There was a poof of white smoke and the next thing they saw was a folded set of clothes. Specifically a red gi with a black cloth belt folded on top of it. Ryu picked it up, rolled up the scroll and put it back, and then handed the folded clothes to Naruto with a short bow.

Naruto's eyes went wide, while Kasumi smiled sweetly at the black-clad genin.

"F-f-f... For me?" Naruto stuttered. Ryu simply nodded and put the clothing in Naruto's hands.

With another quick move, he was suddenly back in the white gi, then he shrugged. "I've had that spare gi in my scroll pretty much since my first year at the Academy. Unfortunately, I outgrew it, it won't even fit me anymore. I think it's just the right size for you though, squirt. But in the mean time, Kasumi's right, even with a change of clothing, we stink and need a bath. If you've got a spare scroll, I can show you how to do the seal while we're getting rid of the stench. I'll show Kasumi-hime, if she wants to bother with it, later on."

"I appreciate that, Ryu," the auburn haired kunoichi remarked, as she lead them away from the dojo and towards the baths.

Another half an hour later, they were back at the dojo, Kasumi in a white and red sleeveless variation of her normal blue and white outfit, and Naruto sporting his brand new red gi with tied black cloth belt, and Ryu in what he admitted to being his 'Training' outfit, or the white gi. Naruto decided to name his new clothing the same and vowed to always wear it when training. Thanks to him learning the _Ishou Irege no Fuuinjutsu_ (Lit: Clothing Switch Sealing Technique), it would be all the easier for him to do just that.

"So, uh, I know that me and Ryu said that we like training, but after what Hayato-sensei just put us through, and what he said we'd do tomorrow... why is it that we're doing extra training now, Kasumi-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Well, first of all," Ryu answered, stretching out as he did so, "what we do with Hayato-sensei can be considered Team Training, since we're all there together and it allows us to get to know one another better, and for our Jounin Sensei to see where we need additional instruction."

"Apparently, he decided that we all needed that instruction in chakra control and stamina, given what we went through today," Kasumi interjected.

"That doesn't mean that's all the training we should do," Ryu started doing the splits, and Naruto began doing his own stretching. "For one thing, it's Team Training, not personal training, so I'm still going to be waking up early and running and doing my own training on my own time. Plus, if say one of us is working on a special technique, one that you don't want anyone else to know about, then you can't exactly work on it during Team Training, now can you?"

Naruto shrugged and asked, "Why not?"

Ryu froze, and was about to retort with his usual anger when it came to his personal techniques, but then he gave it some actual thought. Hayato, during the fight yesterday, had forced Ryu to admit that he wasn't nearly as tough as he thought he was, and a few of his techniques, the _Izuna Otoshi_ for example, were not as "Perfected" as he had believed. Maybe working with his teammates to work out the bugs wouldn't be such a bad idea?

Kasumi, while Ryu became introspective, decided to answer Naruto's lingering question. "For starters, during this week at least, we aren't going to have time, and probably not enough energy to do much work on personal techniques during Team Training. And in answer to your first question, Hayato-sensei wanted us to make sure that you're up-to-speed with us as far as basic skills go."

"Huh?"

"Actually," Ryu interrupted her, "he told me to work with Naruto on his taijutsu skills. And even you have to admit it, Naruto, your taijutsu really sucks."

"Hey!"

"Oh come on, you look like a drunken brawler and throwing your fist out when your several _feet_ away from what you're hitting is not how you attack an opponent. I was there the day of the taijutsu exam at the Academy, and while you're not bad, your form is sloppy and when we fought Hayato-sensei yesterday it was like you were using a cobbled together style of the Academy basics and you throwing your fists where we told you to hit. That's not real taijutsu, or any kind of martial arts, Naruto."

Blushing, he looked down at the ground and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Which is why we're here," Kasumi added. "To work with you on that."

"We're a team," Ryu said, "and a team looks out for one another. Besides, I'd rather know that you can handle yourself in a fight for when we finally get missions than worry about who may attack because they went through you like tissue paper. So, let's start with the basics of the basics. Show us the Academy style first."

Naruto, blushing in embarrassment, nodded his head, resolved to make sure he was more than good enough to cover his teammates in a fight. Then he showed them what he knew about fighting. And thus began the long afternoon of Naruto's re-education in taijutsu.

First they showed him the proper ways to stand, and Kasumi walked him through the breathing exercises that he should have been shown in his first year at the Academy. Then they walked him through the katas and basic stances and attacks, blocks, kicks, counters, and throws of the Academy style. Everything, and that means _everything_ was corrected and they had him repeat the corrected forms no less than ten times over, just to make sure it would stick and dragged a promise out of him that every time he practiced taijutsu in the future, he would make sure he was doing it correctly first and foremost. Finally, after over two hours of intensive instruction, they had three sparring matches.

The first was Naruto and Ryu, and it was not even full contact. More like a training spar, where Kasumi called out the moves Naruto was to use and Ryu either let him hit, or defended and then showed Naruto _how_ he defended. After that, they had a real spar, and Ryu made sure to restrain himself to the Academy style only. He did know three different styles of martial arts after all. Naruto actually did pretty good, managing to throw Ryu to the ground at least five times and get in some good hits as well. Although he got thrown himself over ten times, but he defended much better than he had in the past.

The last sparring match was Naruto and Kasumi, though this time they skipped the training portion and went right into full contact, albeit with restrained power so they didn't injure each other. It finally came to a draw as they kept throwing and countering each other without fail and it was just a matter of who was fastest and the best defender that made the only difference.

As Kasumi predicted, they were all sweaty and in need of another bath by the time they'd finished, but a lot of progress had been made. Also, Ryu had come to a decision.

"Hey Naruto," Ryu said as they were walking back to the baths, "Tomorrow after training, I'd like you to come over to my house for a little while."

"Oh, what about our little bet?" Kasumi slyly commented.

"Just for a little while, before we come back over here, although I'm hoping we can use the outside fighting ring instead of the dojo next time," Ryu replied. Turning back to Naruto, he continued, "Anyway, I'd like you to join me in my own martial arts training."

Naruto blinked, a bit stunned at this seemingly sudden offer, though for the past two and a half hours it had been the only thing on Ryu's mind.

"I'm serious. I'd need to introduce you to my sensei, uh... his name is Gouken. He also happens to be another of my uncles, and he's taught me a lot. I think it would benefit you too, especially if he agrees to teach you the same style he's been teaching me!"

"Really?" Naruto didn't know what to think. He knew becoming a genin would be a life-changing experience, but he could never have imagined so many good and wonderful things happening all at once!

"Yeah, and either way, I'll teach you what I can, but ultimately, it will be up to Gouken-sensei if you are taken on as his student or not. That is... if you want to..." Ryu trailed off.

"Are you kidding?!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'd love to! Thanks Ryu!"

"Well, that's for tomorrow," Kasumi commented. "For now, we have our homework assignment to complete as well. And I know just the place to go to get exactly what we need."

"Huh? What? Where?" Ryu asked, confused.

"Where else?" she gave him a teasing smile and went to get changed, the boys chasing after, asking where she was talking about.

_Twenty Minutes Later_

_Downtown Konoha_

"O'aka's?" Naruto read from the sign above the door. "What is this place?"

Kasumi just smiled and lead the two boys inside the shop.

It was, in a word, a hole-in-the-wall-ninja-pawn-shop. Some of the weapons and materials on display had clearly been used previously and were probably sold to the shop owner and the just put some polish to them, while one or two items were just as obviously brand new. O'aka, while certainly not the only store in the village that dealt in ninja weapons and supplies, Kasumi had found him to have a surprisingly wide selection of the most useful tools. Besides, she could usually weasel a discount out of the merchant and get away with something pretty valuable for less than half its real value.

"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed upon seeing the rows of weapons. "Eh? Is this some kind of junk shop?" He had obviously noticed a few of the more present 'Used' weapons and tools on display.

"WHA-AAATT! Who said that? Who dares to imply O'aka sells junk!" a loud accented voice screamed from the back.

"Eh? What did he say?" Naruto rubbed one ear, as he hadn't understood what the man had shouted due to his unfamiliar accent.

Kasumi just giggled and shouted back, "It's just me O'aka! And I brought a couple friends."

"Oh, here now, Miss Kenshin has decided to pay old O'aka a visit now, has she?" a tall rotund man in a brightly-colored tunic, pants and turban walked out and smiled openly at the genin. "Now, which one'a you delinquents said this here was a junk shop? I'll have you know that O'aka only sells the finest merchandise, he does. Some of the weapons might have a little wear and tear on them, but that's nuthin that a lil spit shine won't cure now 'ere."

Naruto sweat-dropped and started cleaning out both ears, before turning with a pathetic look towards Kasumi and Ryu, the latter of whom was looking more annoyed than confused.

"Don't worry Naruto," Kasumi giggled, patting the blond's shoulder sympathetically. "O'aka's accent just takes a while to get used to is all. I'll help translate if you'd like."

"Oi, you sayin' this lad here don't understand the Queen's English?" O'aka teased.

The three genin just blinked at him, then decided to completely ignore the strange comment instead.

"Anyway, O'aka, all three of us are needing some extra equipment. Our Jounin Sensei is wanting us to be fully equipped for training tomorrow. He said that we'd need to prepare as though we were going on a long-term C-Rank mission," Kasumi explained to the merchant.

Seeing the small talk was over and it was time to get down to business, O'aka just smiled and nodded, walking to the back of the store with the three youths following. "Right-ee-oh princess! O'aka's got just what ya need, no doubt about that! Let's see here. First things first, this is just for training, right?"

"Right," she confirmed.

"Then you won't be needin' no rations or food supplies, which means just basic tools, weapons, and camping gear. Now, I've got a real sweet deal on a complete set of camping gear. Only been used three times before today. I made sure to wash the sheets too," O'aka put on the charm.

"Very funny O'aka," Kasumi wasn't falling for it. "Me and Ryu already have full camping sets, and they're still reliable, so all the two of us need is a restock on weapons and maybe one or two replacements on other supplies. Naruto, here, on the other hand, will take that third fully-equipped camping set that you told me you were saving away for a rainy day, just for me." She smiled prettily at the man.

"Oh dear," he replied, putting on a hesitant face. "Well, y'see there Princess, I already sold that set, so alls I got now are the Used ones. Been hoping for a deal with the new caravan from the Capitol, but that bloody swindler 'lost' his latest shipment..."

"O'aka." Kasumi warned, no longer smiling, in fact glaring at the merchant. "Camping Gear, full set, new. Now. I'll even pay the _listed_ price for it."

"Uh..." Naruto suddenly began to realize what was going on and he felt more than a little uncomfortable all of a sudden at the thought of Kasumi and Ryu treating him like a charity case.

"Deal!" O'aka exclaimed in a sudden change of mood, diving behind the counter and pulling out a large steel-reinforced back-pack with rolled sleeping back attached. "Even threw in a brand new compass at no extra charge. Anything else for you, my lovely?"

"Don't call her that!" Naruto and Ryu growled in unison.

Kasumi giggled and pulled out a list that she'd made up before leaving her home. "I'll need all of these items for me, under the Mugen Tenshin discount and tab of course."

"Of course," O'aka looked less than happy about that, but accepted the list and quickly began gathering all of the things on it, which ranged from packs of senbon needles, extra kunai, sheaths of shuriken, exploding notes, and lots of other little things. It was clear from the amounts she was merely re-supplying herself, rather than buying in bulk for the moment.

"Ryu, I'm sure you have your own list," Kasumi said to her teammate after all the items on her list were gathered. Ryu nodded and listed what he needed from memory, keeping a steady eye on O'aka the entire time. He then claimed the 'Hayabusa Discount and Tab' and picked up a few more kunai and scrolls.

Naruto, having watched all of this, had begun to browse through the shop, and while he could appreciate that most of what was in the shop was affordable to him, he couldn't really 'fully outfit' himself with what he had in savings, aka all the money he had on him at the moment. What he really wanted to do was get lots and lots of shuriken for his new technique, and some exploding notes too! Hey, he's a guy, and guys love their explosions after all.

All together, Naruto had roughly 500 ryo on him, and 100 of that was promised to his dinner at Ichiraku's Ramen. Unfortunately, even the used shuriken were listed at 10 ryo per blade, and 40 shuriken didn't count as fully equipping himself for a long-term mission. Exploding notes were even more expensive and then there were scrolls, kunai, ninja wire, hooks, first aid kit, and other supplies that he knew would be needed, and there was just no way he could afford all of that in the quantities he would need, even if he forgot about dinner and spent all his money on just this stuff!

"Now then, what shall we get for Mr. Junk Shop?" Naruto heard O'aka ask from the counter. Turning to growl at the merchant, Naruto stopped himself from doing anything too foolish, like turning the man into a shuriken pincushion.

"What was that?!" Naruto screamed, getting in the fat merchant's face.

"Oi, oi, calm down, didn't mean nuthin' by it," O'aka laughed as he pushed Naruto back.

Finally, his teammates managed to pull Naruto back from beating the chubby man to a pulp, and while Ryu kept him back, Kasumi resumed negotiations. She'd seen the potential that Naruto held, especially when he was given more than half a chance and some help, and she aimed to both give him that chance and give him all the help that she could. She couldn't really explain her reasoning out loud, but she felt in her heart that Naruto had given her a great and impossible to match gift, and she would spend the rest of her life trying to pay that back in any way that she could, no matter how impossible.

"Now, now O'aka," she admonished the merchant. "This is the first time that Uzumaki Naruto has ever been to this store. You can't blame him for rushing to judgment when all your 'Used' merchandise is on display right next to your 'New' merchandise and expect someone without the experience of buying from you before to fully understand your unique brand of salesmanship, now can you?"

O'aka blinked owlishly at the pretty kunoichi, then quickly fell back into his 'Salesman mode'.

"Right you are, Princess, right you are. My apologies, kind sir..." he was interrupted by Naruto screaming "What did he just call me?!!" at Ryu. "So, what will the young gentleman be requiring today?" O'aka quickly hurried along in hopes of avoiding any further confusion.

"Well, as I'm sure you can tell," Kasumi turned to give Naruto a once-over, "we're working with raw material here, so it's safe to say that he doesn't really know _what_ he wants. So, let's start with..."

"Shuriken! Lots and lots of shuriken!" Naruto screamed in announcement. Screw dinner, he'd gone without before.

O'aka turned to give Kasumi a raised eyebrow.

Sighing, she nodded, then paused. "Let's start with armor. Nothing Used at this time, please. Even if it's better than it was, since this will be his first set of armor, best he learn how to take care of it with something New, right?" O'aka nodded and gave Naruto his own once-over.

"Looks like he's gonna be a tall one, but I've got something that should fit him for the next year or so, maybe longer if he takes good care of it," the merchant nodded to himself and quickly pulled out a full-body set of ninja-mesh armor. Then some steel-toed boots, and a pair of ANBU-regulation (Small) reinforced-armor pants, the equivalent of a flak jacket for the lower half.

Naruto stared in mounting disbelief at the pile of clothing. He also began to get a nagging sensation of suspicion, but his natural enthusiasm outshone it for the moment. "Do you have anything in orange?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

Startled by such a strange question, O'aka paused for several long seconds before shrugging and coming back with a dark-orange, almost the color of a tiger's fur, flak vest with a number storage pockets all over it. "Anything else?" he asked them.

"At least two extra leg-sheaths for shuriken," Kasumi answered, "And an equipment utility belt, with additional pouches for shuriken as well, I believe. If you have a jacket or a cloak to cover the vest and arms, that would be good too. And we can't forget forearm guards."

O'aka nodded, then grinned as he turned to Naruto and asked, "So you like shuriken, do you?"

Naruto, feeling a bit of praise, couldn't help but preening a little and proudly proclaimed, "Yeah! I just learned this awesome new jutsu, the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ (Shuriken Shadow Clone technique), where I can turn just one shuriken into like ten mid-air! So I want to have lots and lots of shuriken to throw at the bad guys!"

O'aka couldn't help but be impressed, as while he was not a ninja himself, he was more than a bit familiar with the more common techniques, and the one that Naruto had just claimed to know was not exactly common by any means. Usually only high-ranking jounin even bothered using that technique in battle as it was a chakra monster, not to mention a genin claiming to have mastered it and wanting to use it regularly was certainly out of the ordinary. But, both Kasumi and Ryu, regular and reliable customers, just stood there like it was old news with a bit of jealousy on Ryu's part.

"Well now, I think I might just have something that you might be able to use," O'aka chuckled as he quickly retrieved two items from the back of the store. They were a pair of forearm bracers, with a bit of after-market upgrades made as well. They were solid black, with six shuriken-styled markings along the top and three razor-sharp fins along the edges. They were also thicker than your standard bracers and heavier too.

"Wow, what are those?" Naruto asked, stars in his eyes.

"These here are my specially crafted shuriken special armbands. They hold an average of 75 shuriken per arm, believe it or not. Outwardly they appear to be just a standard tactical strike bracer with the standard three edged blades on the outside edge. Except that they've also got these six shuriken grooves on the top forearm area for easy removal and access. These six grooves actually indicate hidden sheathes that hold about half a dozen shuriken each. On the underarm hidden side, are more sheaths that hold no less than another three dozen for refill or fast throwing. It also has knuckle guards and a glove than holds an extra shuriken on the back of the hand for just in case of. The grooves, as a bonus, are spring-loaded so that the moment you take one shuriken and throw it, the next one is at the top and ready for release. I can let both of these go for... 100 ryo, full compliment of new shuriken to go with them. I assure you, that's quite a deal."

Naruto's eyes bulged and then he looked over the armor, camping equipment and other things on the counter, including the shuriken bracers. Then he remembered that he only had 500 ryo and all of this was way more than he could afford.

Kasumi saw the look on his face and unfortunately misunderstood what it meant. "Surely you can do better than that, O'aka. You do want a repeat customer, don't you? It wouldn't do to bankrupt him the first time he stepped in the store," she laughed.

Naruto gulped and started sweating, wondering how Kasumi could have known that he was almost literally broke. At least until his last welfare check came in from the Hokage that is...

"Oh, is that so!" O'aka appeared to be angered by Kasumi's words, though he was truthfully just the opposite. "I was just assuming that you would be havin' old O'aka give this _friend_ of yours the family discount as well. Well _excuse me_ princess!"

Kasumi huffed and turned her head.

"I don't need charity!" Naruto suddenly found himself saying.

"Oh really now?" O'aka was quick to close in on a better deal than he might have gotten before.

"Uh... how much for all this together?" Naruto backed off a little, asking quietly.

"Let's see here now... The bracers, still give'em to you with shuriken for 100, then the camping set, New, the full-body mesh armor, New, the ANBU-regulation pants, the armored vest, utility belt, shuriken holsters, three extra holsters and equipment bags for the belt, and the boots. Total comes to around ¥1,975 ryo."

Naruto's jaw, if it were physically possible, would have dropped to the ground even crashing through the wooden floor until it hit bedrock. "Uh..." he reached for his gama-wallet, which was bulging to full, but clearly did not have almost two thousand ryo in it. He was about to decline everything but the camping gear and the bracers (it really was a great deal for high quality equipment like that) and put everything back, when Ryu and Kasumi both caught a clue and remembered that Naruto did not have a clan, or even a family for a source of income. They'd both been avoiding thinking on how Naruto's home life was, but knew that he couldn't have enough money to cover everything that he would need at the moment.

"That won't be necessary, Naruto-kun," Kasumi put her hand over his wallet and forced it back into his hands. "I accept that you will not accept charity and at this time I do not consider what I am about to do charity at all. In fact quite the opposite."

"Huh? Kasumi-chan..." Naruto tried to protest, but the look in Kasumi's eyes kept him from speaking.

"If it weren't for you, I would not be a ninja right now," she quietly admitted to him.

"Yeah, and in case you forgot," Ryu interjected, "Hayato-sensei made it our 'homework assignment' to show up fully equipped tomorrow. And if we don't..." he trailed off and all three of them recalled the words: _"If any one of you are not even remotely close to what I consider properly outfitted, then all three of you, even if it was only one thing for one person, will do an extra hundred Reps as punishment, is that understood?"_

Naruto shuddered and hastily nodded and put away his wallet. Dinner was safe it seemed.

"So shut up and just gratefully accept our help, all right?" Ryu finished his statement rather brusquely, looking towards the distant wall so none of them could see his blush.

Naruto just smiled and nodded, "Hai."

"Now," Kasumi turned back to O'aka, "best go ahead and fill up all of the shuriken sheathes and bags with freshly sharpened shuriken, and a standard weapons layout for that third weapons-bag on the belt. Also, do you have some kind of cloak or overcoat to put over the vest and weapons? Armored as well, please."

"And apply both the Mugen Tenshin _and_ the Hayabusa clan discounts," Ryu added before the merchant could turn away, giving the man a meaningful glare.

Sighing, but knowing these two well enough that they didn't do this kind of thing for just anyone, he nodded and recalculated his figures even while he gathered all of the requested equipment. As for the overcoat, he had something that might work. It was sort of a reverse-tiger-stripe flak jacket. On an adult, it would come to the waist, but for a scrawny kid like Naruto, it might go past his thighs and the sleeves would be big enough to cover his arms entirely and still have enough room for the shuriken bracers.

After everything was laid out on the counter, O'aka offered one last thing, in hopes of getting a repeat customer, despite the fact that he'd probably be giving the kid double-discounts in the future.

"OK, it's all here. Now, since O'aka is a fine gentleman and a very good businessman, and seeing how you lot are making such a large purchase today, I'm going to offer, for free mind you, a complimentary service for our young Mister Uzumaki," the merchant grinned widely.

"I see that headband of yours is rather banged up, looks like the metal's about to fall right off the cloth," O'aka pointed at Naruto's Konoha forehead protector. "I can fix that up in ten minutes, and even give you a new elastic cloth that'll stay on no matter what training you get up to."

Naruto, startled, reached up to touch the symbol of his status as a Konoha ninja. "I-I... I can't. This... this was Iruka-sensei's. He, he gave it to me when he told me I passed..."

O'aka nodded, his face quite serious. "I understand that, but those headbands aren't meant to last forever. Besides, I did say that I'd just put it on a new cloth, right? It'll still be the same one, just refreshed for it's new owner. Those things are meant to protect you just as much as identify you as ninja. I've also got replacements ready if you need a couple, also free of charge. Training can get might intense. It's happened that not just the headbands, but all the ninja's clothes get destroyed if the training is intense."

All three genin stiffened and immediately went and grabbed an extra headband off the shelves, as well as one extra set of mesh armor, each. Naruto, while grabbing the armor and pants, noticed something else off in the corner that caught his eye. Grinning evilly as he thought of the prank-applications, he immediately grabbed it and put it up on the counter with everything else.

"Eh... Naruto, what's that?" Kasumi asked, pointed at what he'd just picked up.

"Oh that? I just saw it. I know it's kinda like Ryu's, but with the _Ishou Irege no Fuuinjutsu_ I can really be like those ancient ninjas Ryu was telling us about!" Naruto explained.

"That's nothing like my mission outfit!" Ryu exclaimed.

"Heh heh heh," O'aka laughed. "Kid, if you go out on missions, and real missions I mean, dressed up in this," he held up the all-black stereotypical ninja costume, "you'll be laughed out of the village, and I promise you, enemy ninja will target you just for insulting them by showing up looking like the ninja stereotype. I just leave that there for the civilians that come in and want to dress up on Halloween!"

Naruto just grinned and had them ring the costume up, along with the extra mesh armor and all his other purchases. Kasumi almost proclaimed she would not pay for the costume, but in the end it got shuffled in with all the rest anyway. Kasumi and Ryu then had to fill out a few forms of paperwork, seeing as they were using clan discounts and clan tabs to make payments for their purchases, plus Naruto's. It wasn't practical in the least to just have a 'running tab' or 'vouchers' and 'IOUs' flying about the village, so there was detailed paperwork that needed to be filled out anytime anyone used clan discounts or clan funds to pay a tab, that way the merchant or vendor could show what they needed to be reimbursed for and stopped a lot of duels over unpaid bills.

"Thanks you guys!" Naruto exclaimed once they walked out of O'aka's shop, carrying their supplies in bags, or scrolls in Ryu's case. Naruto was actually carrying both his and Kasumi's things, though she had tried to carry at least her own stuff he did not mind.

"It was our pleasure, Naruto," Kasumi assured him.

"Hey, you guys want to get something to eat?" he offered. "My treat, since I didn't get to spend anything buying equipment. Ichiraku's Ramen is the best in all of Konoha!"

Kasumi and Ryu shared a look, then shrugged at each other.

"Sure, I've got nothing better to do," Ryu tried to act cool. Both his teammates saw through it though.

"I would love to, Naruto-kun," Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Let's drop our purchases off at my house, since I believe it is on the way to the vendor I believe you're referring to. That way we don't have to worry about misplacing anything."

Naruto nodded, then grinned and formed a familiar hand seal. "_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!" Two shadow clones immediately appeared and accepted the bags from the original, one taking all of Kasumi's things and running off to the Mugen Tenshin clan compound, the other taking all of Naruto's belongings and leaping to the roofs in order to get back to his apartment sooner.

Seeing the surprised looks on his teammates faces, Naruto just shrugged and grinned at them. "The more you use a technique, the better you get at it, right? At least that's what Iruka-sensei always screamed at me whenever he showed me a technique at the Academy. What with all that Hayato-sensei is going to be making us do, I figure I'd better start using one of the only decent techniques I know to master it."

"Good idea," both genin replied, while thinking, _'I have _GOT_ to learn that jutsu!'._

"Hey, want me to practice _Kage Bunshin Nanseihokubatsu_ (Shadow Clone Blitz)?" he asked.

"HELL NO!!" Kasumi screamed at deafening levels.

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

_The Next Day_

_Training Area 25 aka "The Swamp"_

_6 AM on the dot!_

"Not bad, you're even on time," Hayato said in the early morning darkness.

All three genin, outfitted for a long-term C-Rank mission, meaning mission clothes, backpack, full gear, and full weapons compliment, just knelt there on the platform in the middle of the Swamp gasping in lungful after lungful of air as they recovered as best they could, knowing that the real training was going to start as soon as their sensei said go.

"Because I'm in such a good mood, and because you're all exactly on time, I'll give you a five minute break. And breakfast. Here," he tossed them each a single ration bar.

Knowing he was serious, they immediately scarfed down the nasty-tasting nutriment supplements, knowing they would need all the energy they could get for later. They were already exhausted as it was, given the early morning and the mad-dash to get to the platform area on time. Naruto almost hadn't made it from oversleeping.

"First up," Hayato said, "100 Reps. Sooner you get done, sooner that we move on. If you get done with the morning exercises soon enough, and if there's enough time for it, I will teach the three of you a new jutsu. And not just a chakra-control exercise, but a real use-it-in-the-field jutsu. _If_ you finish in time that is."

"You said that twice," Ryu grunted, while Naruto was cheering in the background about learning a new jutsu. Meanwhile, the three genin put down their backpacks and prepared to start running across the water to the swamp trees, but Hayato stopped them.

"Hold up," he called. He picked up the three backpacks and casually tossed each of them back to the owner. "Put them back on and do the Reps carrying all of your equipment with you."

"WHAT?!!" they all screamed.

"You heard me. As for the leaf you usually stick to the middle of your back. Put it on the back of your head instead. Oh, and Kasumi, Ryu. I noticed that Naruto's bag is just a little bit heavier due to the extra shuriken he's put into it, not to mention a few other pieces of useless junk. So each of you put at least one heavy stone into your own packs to make up the difference. Tomorrow, all three of you come with the exact same equipment, or a damn good reason for carrying something your teammates are not."

"Like scrolls?" Ryu asked.

"Or an extra fifty shuriken," Hayato pointed out.

"Fifty...?" Ryu gave Naruto a weird look.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Naruto set his backpack down and the grabbed his left shoulder, the hand almost glowing with chakra, and then there was a loud ripping sound and a flash of orange cloth before Naruto stood before them almost transformed. Actually, instead of his orange jumpsuit, which he'd been wearing, he was now wearing the outfit that Kasumi and Ryu had bought for him the day before. He actually looked quite different with the black elastic headband, the large black and orange-striped overcoat covering the fully-equipped orange flak vest, heavy forearm bracers, navy-blue pants and steel-toed boots.

Hayato's eyebrow twitched slightly as he slowly asked, "What... was that?"

"Huh?" Naruto turned his head. "Oh, it's a technique that Ryu showed me yesterday. Apparently its the way ancient ninja used to do the _Henge no jutsu_ (Transformation technique). But it also helps in switching between my regular clothes and mission clones and training clothes really fast too!"

Hayato was silent for a minute, while Ryu palmed his face, waiting for the bomb to drop and wishing he could kill his teammate at that moment in time. Finally, Hayato just decided to ignore it for the time being, and waved them off, "Go. 100 Reps. Wear your gear, and put the back leaf on the back of your head instead of the middle of your back. After you complete 100 Reps, return here and I'll instruct you in the next exercise. Go!"

"Hai sensei!" the genin launched into action, replacing their backpacks and running across the water. Naruto almost fell in the moment he made the transition from solid land to liquid water, but he managed to catch himself and adjusted for his increased weight in time.

Turning away from his students, Hayato rubbed his face and almost whimpered, "I need a fucking drink! How the hell a kid with that much potential was given such a piss-poor education and still allowed to graduate makes me want to go kill every instructor at the Academy! And I haven't even seen the kid's _worst_ jutsu yet! Gah! How the hell do Jounin Sensei's teach genin sober?!"

His rant over for the moment, Hayato turned a bit of his attention towards his students running up and down the giant Swamp trees, and the rest on preparing the primary tool of their next exercise as Team One. He watched as Kasumi and Ryu both found a couple of rocks close to the shoreline and put them into the extra space in their backpacks before joining Naruto in climbing the tree.

As expected, all three of them were having trouble with maintaining the technique while climbing the tree with so much extra weight. Then, once they had the leaves all in place, one on the forehead, one in the center of the chest, one on the back of the head, and one on the back of each of their hands, plus the two floating leafs in the palm of their hands, they each had momentary difficulty in the rest of the exercise. Naruto almost fell from the tree and had trouble staying on top of the water. Ryu had just as much, if not more trouble with the water as Naruto, though he seemed to handle climbing and racing down the trees just fine. Kasumi had the opposite problem, able to run across the water without any difficulty whatsoever, but she could barely make it up the trees with all the extra weight.

Hayato sat and watched them for about ten minutes, which was how long it took the three of them to finally complete one full Rep each. After that, he started working on the log that would be used in their next exercise; the Revolutions. It was roughly six foot in length with a two foot radius and weighed in at 50 Kilograms. While his Team did their morning Reps, Hayato went about clearing away the leftover roots, branches, moss and bark left on the giant log, which took him about one hour to clean it to his satisfaction. He could've finished it in ten seconds, but then he wouldn't have anything else to do until they finished, so he took his time about doing it.

It actually took them almost two hours to complete 100 Reps this time, and that was with all the times that each of them fell in or fell off the tree, or had to spend a few minutes just catching their breath. Nevertheless, Hayato could see marked improvement in each of them. Naruto especially, despite the fact that he was the one falling off the tree and falling into the water the most. Each time he failed, he just got back up and failed a different way the next time, but never making the same mistake twice.

After they were done, Hayato called them all over to him and allowed them to take off their backpacks for the next exercise. He didn't want to kill them after all.

"OK, here we are," Hayato grinned down at the exhausted genin, patting the log beside him. "I've decided that this here will be you three's new training companion. Her name is Old Misery, and as the saying goes, Misery Loves Company."

Holding back their groans, the trio just focused on continued breathing and resting as much as they possibly could before their sensei told them to go once more.

"To begin with, all three of you will lift this over your heads, and yes, one of you is shorter than the others," Hayato teased briefly. "But it just has to be over your heads, not at the limit of your reach or anything like that. As a test, I want you to do this now and just hold it for ninety seconds. After that, you can set it down again, all right?"

Tiredly, the three genin nodded their heads and went to obey the order. Ryu took the front end, Kasumi the back, and Naruto chose the middle, as they already knew they'd be running with this thing, and it was better if it wasn't tilted too far in one direction or the other. It took them about ten or so seconds to get a good grip on the massive log and then lift it over their heads. Naruto's arms stretched quite a bit, while Ryu and Kasumi managed to keep their arms at right angles with their bodies and still keep it over their heads. Silently, they all counted down ninety seconds and then carefully placed the log back down on the platform.

"That wasn't so bad," Naruto announced, shaking out his arms a bit.

"Good, you can lift it," Hayato said. "I was afraid I'd have to find another log if you couldn't. OK, now here comes the tricky part, and then there's a third part that I want you three to figure out for yourselves. Think of that last bit as mental training. Next, carrying Old Misery, I want you to walk, and I did say walk, not run, but walk the edge of this platform 10 times. If you haven't dropped Old Misery at least once by that point, do it ten more times. When it gets bad enough that you finally drop her, complete that set of ten after picking her back up and then it'll probably be time for lunch."

"I thought you said we'd be carrying that thing on the water, walking around the platform?" Naruto asked. Ryu and Kasumi almost slapped him for that.

"That's the next step, and unfortunately, as witnessed with your earlier Reps, none of your water-walking skills are good enough that you could even make one Revolution around the platform," Hayato answered. "I taught you those swimming and water-breathing techniques so you could keep yourselves from drowning, but if your going to wind up just floating the log along, it's not worth it. So you'll go back to doing Reps after you complete level one of the Revolution."

"You also mentioned a mental aspect to this exercise," Kasumi pointed out. "Care to give us a hint?"

Hayato seemed to think about it, then shrugged to himself and replied, "Sure. Here," he picked up a pebble, then fed a bit of chakra into it until it began to glow. Then he tossed it into the air with barely any effort... and it flew over thirty feet straight up into the treetops. "There's your hint," he smiled. "Go."

Groaning, the genin got to their feet and lifted Old Misery over their heads once more. It took them a couple of steps before they managed to get synchronized and could walk without bunching up or overstepping or not stepping far enough, almost dropping the giant log twice. Finally, they were stepping in time with one another and had the rhythm of the others movements and they moved to the edge of the platform and began to walk along the edge.

Three hours later, just barely an hour before lunchtime, they had completed 127 level one Revolutions when finally Kasumi's energy ran out and she stumbled a bit. The boys could not fully compensate, and they wound up dropping the log, thankfully to the side where the platform was, so they would have to go fishing and finish the last three laps with a soaking wet piece of wood.

Afterwards, Hayato congratulated them and produced another set of bentos for lunch.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Hayato told them as they devoured the food. "Ryu and Naruto especially both have surprising upper-body strength. Kasumi certainly has less raw strength, but that doesn't make any of you weak. So, when did you figure out the trick to it?"

"Ten seconds after you gave us the hint," Kasumi answered between bites.

"What trick?" Naruto asked.

"I thought I felt something weird about that log," Ryu commented.

"What?" Naruto was lost.

"If you channel your chakra into an object, and just pure, raw chakra, no technique or anything extra, and then saturate it with your chakra, it becomes lighter and easier to move. At least for yourself. Others might find it the opposite, but since it's your chakra, it's like whatever that object is becomes part of your own body, but only after it's fully saturated," Kasumi explained for her teammate.

"I'll have to try that next time," Ryu thought out loud.

"Me too!" Naruto nodded.

Kasumi frown a bit, a thought bothering her in the back of her mind, but hunger and lack of chakra clouded her thoughts at that moment, so she let it go for the moment. Hayato, observing from the sidelines, grinned, as that was exactly what he wanted to happen.

"That's for later though, as I've determined that you all are now ready for level two of this exercise. You will carry the log on the water, staying alongside the edge of the platform as you do. You're also allowed to step up onto the platform if you feel like you're about to fall," Hayato told them. "Also, you can add this to the Rules, by the way, once you pass a certain level in these exercises... you cannot go back down a level. Is that understood?"

Kasumi and Ryu both gulped and sullenly nodded. Naruto, however, was a bit confused.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto blurted out.

"It means we can't carry the log on the platform anymore," Ryu summarized. "And when we move past level two, it means that we won't be able to step up onto the platform if we're about to fall in..."

Naruto paled as the implications hit him. Sweating a bit, he turned to Hayato and asked with a nervous grin on his face, "So, Hayato-sensei, er... what's next?"

"I'm not out to kill you kids," Hayato admitted, "So, I'll only make you do Revolution: Level Two just once and give you a five minute break. Then I want you doing another hundred Reps, each. If I see some improvement, I'll introduce you three to a new exercise, all right?"

Groaning, the genin decided it would be best to just shut up and finish their lunches.

Two hours later, they had just finished their Reps and were resting on the platform while Hayato critiqued their performance. Their single Revolution on the water was the hardest thing than any of them had ever had to do, and they actually fell in over a dozen times as they walked the perimeter of the platform, carrying a heavy log while doing the water-walking exercise. Kasumi immediately saturated the log with her chakra, but at the same time, Ryu and Naruto were trying to do the same. Naruto didn't have the experience in channeling chakra like that just yet, but it was soon discovered that an object could not be saturated by more than one person's chakra. Ryu's invading chakra kept pushing Kasumi's back out, unbalancing her and putting more weight on her than what she'd grown used to, leading to the reason they fell in so much. The whole thing lead to some friction between the childhood friends, which worried Hayato and just plain confused Naruto.

As for their Reps, Hayato actually marked noticeable improvement, as each of them were making it to the top and bottom of the trees faster, and the leaves attached to their bodies barely moved anymore while the ones in their palms wavered only a bit in the wind now. They still had more work to do, however.

"OK, I can see you're getting tired here, so this will be the last team exercise of the day," Hayato said. "We'll call this one '_Tipping Point_', and I'll demonstrate for you. Like my other exercises, this has different levels to it, but I'm already at the final level, so remember Rule 5 while I'm showing this to you."

Gulping as they watched their Jounin Sensei pull out a kunai, they sat silent and observed closely when Hayato slammed the hilt of the kunai between two stones in the platform, effectively wedging the blade with it's point straight up. Then he calmly put his right fingertip on the point of the kunai, and levered his body up so he was doing a handstand... with only his right index finger on the tip of a stuck kunai!

Mouths gaping, they stuttered and made surprised noises for several minutes until they finally calmed down and observed how Hayato's entire hand was covered in chakra, and how all of it was being channeled to his fingertip. "Like I said," he explained to them, while maintaining perfect balance, "this is the final level of the exercise. You'll be starting off on... level zero."

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, feeling like he was being slighted, until he took another look at the 'final' level and figured level 'zero' would probably be hard enough for them as it was.

A slight pulse of chakra to his fingertip was enough to push Hayato off the kunai where he leveled himself off and settled on his feet with a single move. "Level zero is working on a flat surface, with both hands, flat on the palms, and just channeling chakra to your hands until you figure out how to actually lift yourself up off the floor with _just_ your chakra. Level 1 is still on a flat surface, but you're doing the same thing with your fingertips. Level 2 is on those rocks over there," he pointed to some sharp pointed boulders against the distant shore, "and doing the same thing. Level 3 is still on the rocks, but only one fingertip instead of all of them. Then, the final level," Hayato gestured to the wedged kunai.

"To pass each level, all you have to do is keep yourself supported with just your chakra for one full minute, sixty seconds. After you pass one level..." Hayato didn't bother finishing the sentence. They already knew.

"Also," he added, just as they got up to start doing handstands, "whatever level you finish on by the end of today is the one you have to start on tomorrow, as this will be another of our common chakra control exercises. Alongside Reps and Revolutions, I want all three of you doing at least one hour of Tips. Understood?"

Sighing, and silently regretting ever agreeing to keep this sadist as their sensei, they all grumbled out a, "Hai sensei!"

Amazingly enough, four hours later, when Hayato finally called it quits for the day, all three of them, even Naruto, had gotten to the final level of Tips and each of them managed to stay balanced on the tip of their kunai for just over one minute each.

As they were getting ready to depart, gathering all of their gear, Naruto and Ryu both 'changed' to their 'civilian outfits', which for Naruto was his usual orange jumpsuit, minus the ninja equipment, and for Ryu was the yellow tank top and camouflage pants and headband he'd worn the other day to O'aka's shop.

"Hm," Hayato mumbled to himself in thought, before calling out to his team. "OK, you three did well with your last 'homework' assignment, so here's another; tomorrow I want each of you to demonstrate and teach a chakra-control technique to the rest of us. It has to be a technique that none of your teammates already know, and if you've already shown your teammates a chakra-control technique then it doesn't count. So be sure to do some extra research into this, so you don't wind up showing off the same technique as your teammate will."

"Oh man!" Naruto fretted as he walked alongside Ryu and Kasumi to the Mugen Tenshin compound. "How am I supposed to show off a chakra control technique? You guys already taught me all of the ones I know! This is impossible!!"

"There are plenty of chakra-control techniques out in the world, Naruto," Kasumi comforted her teammate. "You just have to find out about them. Or, as most tend to do, make up your own. Chances are, someone else has thought of the same thing somewhere, but Hayato-sensei only said that it had to be something that _we_ don't already know. And believe it or not, we've shown you all of the techniques that we know too."

"Oh, well, that makes me feel a little better," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his neck.

"Which means we're going to have to go to our families to get new techniques," Ryu muttered, uncomfortable. Both for mentioning family around an orphan, but also because he dreaded asking his family members for anything. They tended to get a bit... eccentric when it came to teaching the 'younger generation'.

Naruto blinked, putting his hand down as the comment about family reminded him of his lack of one, but also started him thinking on ways around that. It certainly hadn't stopped him before when he needed something that normally a family would have taken care of for him, and it wouldn't stop him now.

"Oh! I know! I'll go ask the old man for help! They used to call him the Professor, so he's got to know a technique that he'll be allowed to teach me!" Naruto enthusiastically decided.

Kasumi and Ryu almost stopped cold, but managed to catch themselves in time so they didn't stumble. It wasn't often that you heard someone bragging about going and learning a technique from the Hokage after all!

"So, ready for some more taijutsu training, Naruto?" Ryu asked the blond, looking forward to it a bit himself. The day had been tough on them, but Hayato seemed to be concentrating more on chakra control and endurance training than more intense training that would physically exhaust them. Thankfully, Naruto's taijutsu was still on the beginner level, so there was no high level techniques to worry about in further exhausting them.

"HECK YEAH!!" Naruto shouted out loud.

_Evening_

_Hokage Tower_

_Hokage's Office_

"No," the elder ninja stated with resounding finality, stacking several documents and putting them to the side.

"WHAT?!" Naruto screamed as the Hokage denied him. "What not?!!"

"For starters," the Third Hokage sighed, "I'm too busy." He demonstrated this by pulling out another sheaf of papers and started stamping his seal on them.

Growling, Naruto made a single seal, and didn't bother shouting the jutsu as ten copies of himself exploded into existence and immediately started shoving the paperwork out of the way... by sorting and cataloging it and filing it all away in a matter of minutes. "There," he pronounced, "now you're not busy anymore! I'm serious here, old man! Hayato-sensei gave us homework! We have to show him a chakra control technique that my teammates don't already know! They've already taught me water-walking, tree-climbing and the ones with the leaves! I don't know any others!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of the Hidden Village of Konoha, sighed to himself, and glanced briefly out the window at the Hokage monument, and specifically at the face that rested next to his own on the mountain. Then he just smirked to himself and shrugged.

"All right, Naruto, all right," the Hokage chuckled. "C'mon. I'll show you this one technique that you may actually find useful. And given how late it is, I think it's time for dinner, so how about I treat the both of us to some Ichiraku Ramen?"

"HECK YEAH!!" Naruto bounced around the room, doubly excited.

A short walk later, Naruto was pestering the man known as the 'Ninja Professor' as they sat and waited for their orders to be served. "So, so, so, so, so, so? C'mon old man! What technique are you going to teach me?"

"I'm not going to teach you anything Naruto," Sarutobi calmly corrected the hyperactive blond. "I'm going to show you a simple little trick, which requires a great deal of chakra control. Well, enough that even some chuunin have trouble with it. It's called the _chakra strings_ technique."

"Chakra... strings?" Naruto scrunched his face up in confusion.

"Here," the Hokage held his hand over the chopsticks in front of him. It was not visible to the naked eye, but hair-thin strings of chakra fell from the Hokage's fingertips to several different points on the chopsticks. Naruto watched silently, but still jumped when the chopsticks suddenly broke themselves and moved on their own! Then, as the Hokage began to make the sticks move around and even dance a little bit, he began to catch on. Especially with the way the Hokage's hand was hovering over the sticks the way it was.

"Oh, I get it now! You're using that chakra strings thing, making them move!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Exactly," the Hokage smiled. "It's a simple C-Rank technique, though some use it to great effectiveness, particularly the ninja of the Hidden Village of _Suna_ (Sand). They've developed very lethal marionettes, or puppets so you can understand Naruto. They then use chakra strings to manipulate these weapon-puppets and use them in battle. I certainly don't expect you to become a puppet-user, Naruto, but to perform the chakra strings technique at all requires a level of control that most genin don't have. Especially for long-range, but I think it's something you might enjoy."

"How do you do it?" Naruto asked, eyes wide open in amazement.

They spent much of the next hour discussing the technique as they ate their ramen supper. By the time the Hokage figured he had to be heading back to the office, Naruto was already trying to do the chakra strings technique on his own. The Hokage chuckled and gave him some hints and other advice as the young genin escorted the Hokage back to the tower, but what really surprised him was that by the time they got there, Naruto had actually succeeded in creating a few stable chakra strings. They weren't more than a foot in length and unraveled rather quickly and he hadn't figured out how to make the strings attach to stuff yet, but that he was making the strings at all was more than Sarutobi expected!

"Keep up the good work, Naruto," he bid the young blond a good night, who enthusiastically promised to indeed keep up the good work before racing back to his apartment, occasionally casting out chakra strings from his fingertips to see if he could make the technique work.

Sighing, the Hokage turned back to his office and the worst enemy every Kage in the world faces on a daily basis; paperwork... only to find Naruto's clones still hard at work and actually having completed over half of the more mundane tasks that crossed his desk. Smiling, Sarutobi dismissed the clones, showing them a few extra hints and clues about how to make the chakra strings work as reward for their hard work. Idly, he wondered if Naruto already knew about that particular quirk about the _Kagebunshin no jutsu_.

_Next Day_

_The Swamp_

"Right on time," Hayato said the moment the genin touched down on the platform, which they had thought was empty when they'd jumped to it.

"AAHHH!" they screamed, startled and breathing heavily, pointing at the jounin, they screamed at him, "DON'T DO THAT!!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, unrepentant.

"So, homework first, then I want you guys doing Reps for the next two hours, then try doing Revolutions again," Hayato outlined their morning. "Naruto, cause I feel like being nice, you get to go first."

"Right!" Naruto nodded and stepped forward. He pulled out a single shuriken then grinned as he dropped it... and it dangled from his hand like it was attached with ninja wire. It only hung about 10-13 inches from his fingertips and had five strings attached to it, and no matter what he tried, Naruto couldn't get it to move or anything yet, but it was without a doubt the _chakra strings_ technique.

Naruto's teammates, jounin included, all blinked in surprise as he explained what it was he was doing.

"I got the old man to show me this last night while he took us out to dinner at Ichiraku's Ramen! He called it the chakra string technique, no seals required, just pure chakra control. And believe me, it's not easy. I stayed up almost half the night just getting this much to work right! The old man could do more impressive things with it and mentioned that some people could use it for long range attacks! Unfortunately, this is the furthest away my strings can get without unraveling." He 'tugged' upwards and the shuriken snapped to his hand, and then he put it away.

"Okay..." Hayato hesitated, "We'll use the time after lunch to practice these by the way. Ryu, you next."

Ryu nodded, then took a deep breath, almost in preparation for what he was about to show them. Then he slumped and shrugged as he told them, "Well, actually, I wasn't taught a chakra control exercise. My family did finally teach me how to sense chakra signatures though, although my dad said that it was a bit different than the way most other people do it. Surprisingly though, it does require some actual chakra control to do it."

Hayato almost slapped his face in exasperation, then asked, "This wouldn't happen to be a Clan technique, would it Ryu?"

Ryu shook his head, then hesitated and nodded sheepishly, before hesitating again, finally he just shrugged. "I'm really not sure. My dad just told me that I had to sort of quiet my chakra flow, which then makes it tense, but not active. He worked with me until he said I had it, although I'm not sure how I'm going to teach Kasumi and Naruto how to do it..."

Kasumi heard this, then applied the theory on the spot, her body tensing, before she let out a sigh, much the same as Ryu had done at first. Then she tensed her whole body again, her eyes snapping open, filled with surprise.

"On the other hand, I don't think Kasumi will have the same problem..." Ryu trailed off.

"Tenshins..." Hayato softly cursed to himself. "Almost as bad as the damn Uchiha ever were."

"Eh? What? What is it Kasumi-chan?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between everyone else.

"It... it's hard to explain, Naruto," Kasumi slowly explained. "But using the basic theory, what Ryu just showed us, well, it increases your awareness roughly tenfold! By forcing your chakra to still itself, it creates a sort of... hypertension along your chakra network. Naruto, have you ever seen a wire when it's drawn tight?"

"Uh, yeah," Naruto nodded, trying to follow along.

"You know how a wire trap works, right?" she continued. He thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "The wire is kept tight so that if it detects any kind of vibration, the trap is sprung, right?"

"Yep, so what this technique does," Ryu picked up the explanation, having heard the theory all last night, "is makes your entire body like that wire, able to detect all kinds of vibrations. Which is fine, since our bodies do that naturally, with skin, hair and our sense of touch."

"When it's done to your chakra instead of just your body, however," Kasumi finished, "your sensitivity to chakra is increased, which has the added benefit of allowing you to sense people, animals, plants, and most especially, jutsu when they're being used."

"Wow! That's cool!" Naruto exclaimed.

"And very hard to do," Ryu admitted, blushing slightly. "Except for Kasumi-hime of course."

The chestnut haired kunoichi blushed a bit herself, not really feeling that being able to analyze any ninjutsu theory explained to her in only a few minutes worthy of any kind of praise. Besides, she didn't exactly have much to add to what Naruto and Ryu had already shown.

"OK, let's get this over with," Hayato grunted. "Kasumi, if you would please?"

She nodded, composing herself quickly before moving onto her demonstration. "This techniques was originally called the _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_(Lit; "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire")," she paused when Ryu sniggered and Naruto almost laughed out loud, "but now we just call it the rapid-punch technique." She then demonstrated by having her fists flash out at blurring speed, so fast that even Hayato could barely keep track of the number of punches. The boys jaws both dropped in amazement, no longer laughing.

"How is that a chakra _control_ technique?!" Ryu exclaimed.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Naruto shouted in excitement.

"Thank you," Kasumi demurely bowed, but she was definitely smiling too. "It should be since I spent half the night practicing it to learn the trick to it, after finally convincing my brother to show it to me."

"As for how this would help with chakra control, well it's been heavily adapted from the original version so that it requires a unique way of channeling your chakra so your energy almost literally pushes your arms, rather than the other way around," she calmly explained.

"You mastered this in one night?" Hayato questioned.

Kasumi shrugged, then shyly nodded her head, "Yes, but I had to ask my older brother for help several times in order to fully understand it enough so I could teach it to Naruto and Ryu today. I did tell him my reasons for wanting to know this technique and he agreed that it was OK for me to teach my teammates how."

"Interesting," Hayato commented. "Very well then. After lunch, you'll practice each of these exercises. For right now though, gear up and I want you all doing Reps for the next hour. Naruto, I want you to make as many clones as you possibly can, doesn't matter the number, just as many as you can and I want them doing Reps alongside the rest of you. Go."

"Hai!" they snapped to attention before vanishing.

(Play "Chakra Merge Training")

An hour later, Hayato called them in and then had Naruto dispel his clones, but instead of vanishing all 250 of them at once, he had the genin dispel them in groups of ten at a time with about thirty seconds wait time between them. Naruto remembered all too well when he'd almost passed out the other day from dispelling too many shadow clones at once, so he was pleased to find that doing it this way lessened the headache, and he seemed to retain more information this way too.

Finally, once all the clones were dispelled, Hayato merely pointed at Old Misery and crossed his arms again. Grumbling to themselves, they wasted little time in picking up the log and then stepping out onto the water, just standing there at first so they could be sure of their footing. Almost immediately a struggle began between them as Ryu and Kasumi were both channeling their chakra into the log to make it lighter, but the other's chakra kept forcing their own out. To make matters even more complex, after their tenth step, Naruto finally figured out how to channel _his_ chakra into the log too!

"Wh-what...?!" Kasumi was startled when her chakra was completely forced out of the log, and from his reaction so was Ryu's, the full weight of the burden coming down on both of them. Thankfully they managed to increase chakra to their water-walking in time so they didn't fall in.

"Wow, you guys were right, doing this does make it feel lighter!" Naruto commented from between them. Kasumi and Ryu could only stare for a few seconds before they had to focus more on continuing the Revolution.

Ryu, not to be outdone, immediately counter-attacked, pushing his chakra as hard as he could into the log. Naruto didn't even notice and the dark-haired genin's chakra was pushed back out within seconds. The next time, though they did nothing to plan it that way, both Kasumi and Ryu pushed back together from their respective ends.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at the feather-weight (to him) log he was holding. "What was that?"

Their chakra was pushed back out before he'd even spoken, but apparently he had noticed their attempts to reclaim their hold on the log, even if he didn't know what the sensation had meant. It was bordering on the insane, although no matter how bizarre, given who they were dealing with it wasn't as surprising as it might have been two days previous. Naruto really wasn't _trying_ to do anything but saturate the log with his chakra. It just so happened that his chakra had so much force behind it that Kasumi and Ryu couldn't really counter it, especially not when whatever was used was replaced within a few seconds!

Thankfully, Hayato did not make them do any more than just one Revolution today. After they had completed their circuit, he tossed them each a ration bar and gave them a five minute break.

Hayato, however, had been observing them closely, especially when Naruto finally succeeded in saturating the log with his chakra. It was pretty obvious what the problem was, but it would take him some time to get the materials needed for this next exercise. But the sooner the better.

"Break's over," he snapped at them the moment they finished their ration bars. "Tips for the next hour. You fall, only thing you are to do is make sure you're not injured and then get right back up. Go!"

Sensing that he wasn't in the mood for giving any kind of slack today, the genin didn't even bother responding, except to get over to the three embedded kunai and channel chakra to their hands and fingertips before doing single-finger handstands on the pointed tips of the kunai. While they were doing that, Hayato subtly left a shadow clone behind in his place while he ran into town to buy the materials he would need. And thanks to the Hokage's generosity and forethought, he could actually afford them.

A short time later, which is entirely relative, Hayato returned with a heavy bag, and the genin were still struggling with Tipping Point exercise, each of them only able to stay up for an average of ten to thirty seconds before they fell, cut their finger, or their chakra sputtered out. They were getting better, bit by bit. Kasumi's chakra endurance was increasing second by second, Naruto's balance had gone from hardly anything worth mentioning to impressive by civilian standards, and Ryu's chakra control was practically skyrocketing from what it had been with each surmounting failure driving him on. But it was only their second day.

"OK, enough of that," Hayato called out when they all fell one more time. "Time for a new exercise."

Groaning with dread, the genin got to their feet and walked over, only for Hayato to pull out three blocks of wood from his bag and toss them at the genin. They caught the blocks of wood easily, a brief inspection revealed that there was a detailed and complex seal on one side of each block. It kind of looked like an exploding seal, but only in similar symbols put into a completely different layout.

"What's this for?" Naruto asked.

Hayato smiled and stepped back from the short blond and subtly gestured for Ryu and Kasumi to do the same. Confused, they followed the instructions silently, while Naruto stared back and forth between his block of wood and Hayato.

"Naruto, I want you to channel your chakra into that block of wood. Same way you did with Old Misery earlier, but instead of just letting your chakra just filling it, I want you to use your chakra the same way you use it in a jutsu. Say... Kage Bunshin. Shove as much chakra as you use to make... oh let's say just 1 clone and do it as you normally would, but instead of doing the technique, just channel the chakra into the block of wood."

Naruto shrugged and said, "OK, sound's easy enough," then scrunched his face in concentration for just a moment, right before the block of wood exploded into sawdust. "Eh?! What happened?!"

Ryu and Kasumi's eyes bulged wide at the spectacle, not quite believing what they'd seen with their own eyes. Hayato explained, "The seal on the blocks of wood is a sort of measurement tool. It triggers whatever it's inscribed on to self-destruct. But, how well or how much destruction comes from that depends on the chakra applied to the seal."

"So... what does this mean?" Naruto gestured to the sawdust in his hands.

Hayato smiled, but instead of answering he reached into his bag, this time pulling out a fist-sized polished stone, inscribed with the same seal and tossed it to Naruto. "Again," Hayato ordered. "This time use the same amount of chakra you would use for ten clones. Might want to close your eyes too."

Gulping, Naruto considered for a moment, then shrugged and held the stone out away from his face and channeled the requested amount of chakra. This time they could see the seal glowing with infused chakra, and how it followed a spiraling path of symbols from the edges to the center-symbol, all in the blink of an eye. The instant the chakra hit the center symbol, cracks formed in the stone right before it blasted itself apart, or perhaps just the outer-most skin of the stone, sending it flying from Naruto's hand and a good twenty feet straight up, where it then exploded like a firecracker into a fine dust-like powder, the largest grain of which could only be identified with Byakugan-level telescopic vision.

"In short," Hayato told them, "the seal only activates when a certain amount of chakra is applied to it. The level of destruction depends on the amount of time it takes for the chakra to go from the seal's first border to the central symbol. Longer than ten seconds and nothing happens. Between one and two seconds, complete destruction of the object."

"So... what does it mean that Naruto _atomized_ those two things?" Ryu wanted to know.

"It means," the jounin smirked, crossing his arms, "that Naruto's chakra has an incredible amount of force behind it. So far I've been focusing you three on chakra _control_. Your attempt at the Revolution exercise earlier showed me that we need to work on something else as well; chakra _force_."

"Chakra force?" Kasumi repeated, having never heard of this before.

"For most ninja, it's not a problem, in fact it's more of a side effect that comes from getting stronger," Hayato shrugged. "The more chakra that you have, the greater amount you can use. The liability comes in that a ninja can only use jutsu when his control is stronger or at least just as strong as the force behind his chakra. Naruto has so much chakra that when he channels it, it's as if he's trying to aim a fire hose, where for the rest of us it's like controlling an eyedropper, or to be more fair a garden hose. Which brings us to our next set of exercises."

"Heh heh heh," Naruto chuckled, practically preening. "I'm awesome!"

"Actually Naruto," Hayato burst the boy's balloon, "since you have so much more chakra than your teammates it's somewhat of a liability. What I mean is that in order to even keep up with your teammates in terms of chakra control you'll have to work three times as hard as they do. This exercise in chakra force here, which you literally just blew through, will teach them how to put more power behind their chakra. Taking away your advantage in raw power, so that your lack of chakra control is more obvious. If you want to keep your 'lead' then you'll actually have to double your effort so your working six times as hard as they are. But that's up to you. I'm just the teacher, not your lord and master, it's up to you."

He immediately sobered, and for one second they all thought he would start whining and complaining. Instead, Naruto's eyes turned hard and his expression grew determined as he nodded once, and turned to resume the Tipping Point exercise.

"Actually," Hayato stopped him before he got too far, "While Ryu and Kasumi are doing this, I want you to start on the next level of Reps."

Naruto and his teammates froze. The _next level_ of Reps?!! It was hard enough already!

"Here," the jounin pulled a few more items from his bag, handing them one by one to Naruto. "These two go on the back of your hands. These two go on your forearms. These go on your upper arms. These go on your thighs. These go on your shins. These go on the back of your lower legs. This one goes on your chest. This one goes on your back. And so does this one, and this one and this too. Then this goes on your forehead. While they're working on the woodblocks, you get to stay on the platform and work on getting all of this to stick to you at once without falling off. Once you can do that, then you go back to running up and down trees across the water. As for the leaf-floating parts... use shuriken instead. Understood?"

"... Hai..." Naruto weakly responded.

Each of the items that Hayato had just handed him was centimeter-thick metal plates, some of them curved and shaped a bit, but not one of them had any kind of strap or hook that made it seem they should fit together or on the human body at all. They were polished smooth too, so he couldn't even 'snag' them on his new fishnet armor either. The piece that went on his forehead looked the same as the metal plate in a forehead protector, just minus the symbol and the cloth wrapping. It were the back-pieces that really weighed him down though, as one was a solid metal plate that would cover his entire back below his shoulders, but there were two other pieces, one was actually just a solid metal pole, about three and a half to four feet long, and the other was a big flat circular piece of metal that _might_ have been a shield, if it were caved in and rounded off. It did not escape Naruto's notice that the circle piece just so happened to be the same diameter of most _fuuma shuriken_, aka the giant throwing stars some specialists used. But... how the heck was he supposed to put _all three_ on his back, provided he could do one in the first place?

While Naruto was working out how to attach light-armor-thick pieces of metal to his body using only his chakra, Hayato went back over to Ryu and Kasumi to explain what it is he wanted them to do and why.

"I'm pretty sure that you two already know why I'm having you two do this, while Naruto gets a harder chakra control exercise," he began. "So I'll save the platitudes for when you'll actually need them. You two are more or less evenly matched on chakra capacity. Kasumi has a little less raw chakra, but more control that I'm only going to speculate at. Ryu, you have an average chakra level of a rookie chuunin. But Naruto has Kage-level chakra capacity, so don't look smug. Want to know why the two of you kept losing to Naruto's chakra when he started channeling his into Old Misery?"

"He was putting in massive amounts of chakra, that's why!" Ryu complained. "It kept pushing our chakra back out! We can't counter Kage-level chakra!"

"He was only using a very small amount of his chakra. I'd say... about the same output he puts into Reps, specifically the leaf-sticking and leaf-floating aspects," Hayato countered his argument. "What I meant earlier by chakra _force_ is the rate at which chakra is replenished, whether that be in the body, or into a technique. The more chakra you have, the higher force you can unleash. Remember when I compared Naruto's chakra to that of a fire hose? Either of you know how a fire hose works?"

Kasumi nodded. "Water is pumped at high pressure through the hose and then compressed by the nozzle into powerful streams of water. The nozzle can also adjust the stream from a fine mist, to a powerful torrent."

"Little known fact, visibly speaking, a fire hose can shoot out the stream of water with the same amount of force with only a bucketful of water as it can with a water tank as big as the Hokage monument. It just happens to run out of water quicker and can't do as much with the smaller supply, but it's still possible. A lot of ninja figure out how to do this as they get older, usually only with one or two jutsu that they practice on making stronger. To put it simply, you two weren't overwhelmed by Naruto's chakra by how _much_ he was using, but by how quickly and how fast he was putting it out. This is to help you figure out how to match the force of Naruto's chakra and put all of you on an even footing again."

"How does this put us on an even footing?" Ryu argued. "He's getting chakra control training while we're here trying to trigger a self-destruct seal? He'll be better than us in no time!"

"Then go ahead and blow up the wood and the stone," Hayato argued back. "I certainly don't expect sawdust and sand, but tiny splinters and pebbles will be good enough I think."

Growling, Ryu stepped away from them and held out his block of wood and channeled his chakra as fast as possible. The seal lit up and in the next second, the block of wood cracked and blew up into three or four large chunks and a bunch of splinters. Ryu stared in shock. He'd thought it would've done more than that.

"More force, huh?" Kasumi muttered, staring at her own wood for a second before holding it up and channeling her chakra. It took just under two seconds before the wood exploded in her hand into a few more pieces, but they were all large chunks.

"This is less about control right now," Hayato advised them, "and more about raw power. Don't conserve your energy so much, but at the same time make sure it's going in the right direction. Naruto got his reaction from the seal because his chakra is almost literally bursting at his seams to get out. His problem is that when he lets it out the majority of it goes every which way and about a little more than half, but not much more, actually goes into whatever technique he's using. After spending the past two days doing nothing but working on chakra control and channeling it into numerous objects, he probably pushed that half up to almost all. Keep in mind that until you two can match the force of Naruto's chakra, he's going to be more powerful than the both of you, no matter how skilled you get."

Growling out loud, Ryu almost dove for the bag and pulled out another block of wood and concentrated on pushing as _much_ chakra as he could as fast as he could into the block of wood. Kasumi was more sedate but no less urgent in her own efforts.

By lunchtime, Naruto had figured out how to attach all of the metal plates to his body, and keep them there. Even the three different pieces on his back, and been doing Reps for just under an hour, though it was agonizing for him after the first ten minutes. The metal plates each weighed in at several pounds each, and combined they weighed him down quite a bit on the water, meaning he fell in more than once, and fell off the trees just as many times as he had the first day. But, he kept at it, and only had to glance at the platform where Kasumi and Ryu were blowing up sealed woodblocks to become extra motivated.

Naruto's teammates, in the meantime were getting much better at increasing the 'force' of their chakra, with noticeable results. After over three dozen blocks apiece, they each finally managed to succeed in blowing the blocks into sawdust. Once this was accomplished, Hayato stopped them from trying anymore as they were both practically exhausted.

"OK, that's enough. Naruto! Lunchtime!" he called, pulling out the extra-large bentos he'd bought earlier while he was getting the training materials. They all eagerly dove into the meals, Naruto consuming his twice as fast as he normally did. Once they'd finished, Hayato grinned sadistically as he tossed them a ration bar each for desert.

Despite the bland taste, each of them knew they needed the energy and devoured the foul-tasting nutritional supplements just as quickly.

"You've done well, so far," the jounin complimented them. "Naruto, you especially have made the most improvement, simply because you were so far behind your teammates. Once they complete their training for today in increasing their chakra force, you'll all be on, more or less, equal standing with one another."

"So for the next half hour, Naruto I want you doing the Tipping Point exercise, while Kasumi and Ryu use up the last of my woodblocks. After that, you two can start on the stones, which needless to say require a lot more chakra to blow up than wood. Naruto, you'll go back to Reps Level Two after you've had time to digest, and once Kasumi and Ryu have finished up the stones we'll try doing Revolutions just once more. See if you do any better after this. After that, you guys can work on your homework and teaching them to each other."

"Hai!" Team One snapped to attention before splitting up to their various exercises.

It took most of the afternoon, but Kasumi and Ryu were both able to shatter the stones into sufficiently small pebbles and Hayato determined their chakra force was now able to compete with Naruto's natural chakra force. They were exhausted from the training, and how much effort it took to draw out that much chakra and pretty much use it all at once, that they almost passed out when it was finally over with.

Naruto was just as exhausted, having been running up and down the trees across water wearing over 50 lbs of metal plates and hovering shuriken in his palms, his chakra level as low as it had ever been, save maybe the night he first learned _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. So, when they went to do their Revolution, Naruto thankfully being allowed to remove the metal plates, they all immediately went to lighten their load and saturate Old Misery with their chakra to make the log as light as they possibly could. And this time, Naruto's chakra didn't overwhelm his teammates. In fact, something very interesting happened instead.

"Grr... I wish you two would stop that!" Naruto grumbled, feeling his teammates chakra fighting his.

"Speak for yourself, you're the one with Kage-level chakra, remember?" Ryu argued from the front.

"With below genin-level control," Kasumi added from the rear, feeling irritable.

"How the heck is this supposed to work, anyway?" Naruto asked in frustration. "We can't exactly take shifts on lightening the log, Kasumi-chan's the weakest of us so it would just be me and Ryu feeling the full weight of the log all the time!"

"Take that back!" Kasumi's arms shook as her own frustration mounted.

"Why should he? It's true," Ryu argued back, having long sense passed frustrated and moved into anger.

"Well did it ever occur that maybe we should just try putting our chakra in just our part of the log?" Naruto asked.

"Stop asking stupid questions," Kasumi snapped.

"Stop ordering us around, _Hime_!" Ryu snapped back.

Growling softly, Naruto pulled his chakra back and started counting the steps until this exercise was over, letting Kasumi and Ryu have the lighter load for a while. That was the plan until Hayato shouted, "Do one more lap. I want to see if you lot have improved at all."

Gaping, the genin almost stopped their movement, but thankfully they kept their wits long enough that they only paused and kept pace with one another. So much for lightening the load, Naruto grumbled, mixing his chakra in frustration before shoving it back into Old Misery.

"Damnit!" Ryu cursed and Kasumi cried out as the log suddenly got much heavier for each of them. Naruto didn't say anything, just an annoyed look on his face. His sudden chakra burst had overwhelmed the both of them and forced out their chakra just as easily as it had the first time.

Not saying a word, Ryu just kept pace and focused his concentration on his chakra for a few moments. A second later, he shoved his newly mixed chakra with what he privately called 'stone-breaker' force into the log himself. At the exact same moment Kasumi also 'attacked' with her own increased force of chakra.

Naruto grunted, but didn't say a word as their silent struggle over saturating Old Misery with their chakra resumed where it had left off, only with more force behind it with each step taken. Ten steps later, Naruto grinned to himself and decided to play a small prank and shoved roughly the amount of chakra that he used to make 100 shadow clones into the log, making it almost glow from the sheer amount.

Kasumi was stunned as she felt the chakra spike, but was prepared for one of the boys to do something like this, and she didn't feel like getting wet with swamp water again, so she braced herself and pushed her chakra out with everything she had, going well beyond 'stone-breaker' force.

Ryu was caught off guard for the second that Naruto tried to kick the both of them out, and he almost was, but he managed to hang on with one last little thread, but that was enough for him to concentrate and 'counter-attack' with as much force as he could muster, breaking his own limits.

Naruto couldn't really keep up the same level of chakra he used to create 100 shadow clones forever, it was more a burst before falling back down to his normal level of chakra-output. The really surprising thing, that nobody could have known, even after the fact, was that Naruto's chakra control, while much improved thanks to the previous couple days, wasn't anywhere near perfect and he was using about ten times as much chakra as he needed, and 90 percent of it was bouncing off the log and going elsewhere. This meant that Naruto was using about three times as much chakra to 'lighten the load' as Kasumi and Ryu both were, instead of the ten times that Hayato sensed from him.

The surprising thing was, while Hayato's impromptu 'chakra force' training had shown the two genin how to basically double their own chakra output for, when they went beyond that level in response to Naruto's 'prank', the chakra levels between all three genin finally reached the exact same level. Or at least close enough for what Hayato wanted to happen to finally happen.

The moment their chakra levels were in sync with one another all three genin felt it as their chakra _merged_ and filled the log as though it were one and all of them felt as it became feather-light. They were so surprised that they stopped walking for a second, but were afraid to do anything else.

"Something the matter?" Hayato asked as he noticed them stop moving, and stop bickering.

"Uh, no!" Ryu answered. "We're fine! Guys, let's move." He whispered back to the others.

Silently, Naruto and Kasumi both nodded and resumed their walk on the water around the platform.

"What the heck is going on?" Naruto whispered so only his teammates could hear him.

"I think it's like that time at the end of our test, when we finally beat Hayato-sensei," Kasumi whispered back. "I had noticed that when we were fighting his chakra sword, when we defended together, somehow our chakra temporarily merged, creating a strong enough defense that we actually rebounded the blade. Then, at the end, I think it happened again, but more powerful. This... this should be impossible!"

"Shh!" Ryu hissed at her. "Quiet! What is this that it's supposed to be impossible, Kasumi?"

"Chakra-merge," she quietly told them. "Our... our chakra is mixing and merging together to create whole new chakra. It's not supposed to exist anymore. It's thought that it never really existed or was possible in the first place. The theory though, at least I think it is, the same way that we mix chakra, by combining our ki and our shen, our physical energy and our spiritual energy and mixing it around to create chakra, well... it _feels_ like that's what's happening right now. Our individual chakra is mixing together with the others to create a new... well a whole new chakra basically."

"You're right," Ryu gasped, "That is impossible!"

"Uh, guys? We're kind of doing it right now. Even I can feel it. So, doesn't that make it not impossible, but... well, possible, since we're already doing it?" Naruto pointed out.

Kasumi and Ryu blinked as the thought drifted through their brains.

"Wonder if we can do this anytime we want?" Ryu suddenly wondered.

"If we could, it would happen naturally, and this time it took work," Kasumi reminded him.

"Yeah, but that's because we were imbalanced before," Ryu argued back. "You and I weren't putting enough force behind our chakra, not making it powerful enough to interact with Naruto's on the same level. And Naruto's chakra control was so bad he was probably using either too much, or not enough."

"So how did it happen in our fight with Hayato-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Duh! We were all exhausted, and you'd been using Kage Bunshin all day," Ryu answered. "Your chakra level was probably as low as ours, if not lower, and you'd just learned a bunch of new techniques, the use of which boosted your control so you were channeling the same amount of chakra that the two of us were using at the same time. It might have helped that we were all expressing a lot of chakra out of our fists and hands, thanks to Kasumi's idea on how to defend against that blade."

"I don't believe it," Kasumi said in a stunned voice, before tightening her face into one of anger. "The bastard _knew_! He _wanted_ this to happen! It's probably why he let us pass in the first place! Like Naruto just said, we're doing the impossible here! The most this exercise could give us in chakra control is more experience at water-walking while carrying a larger weight, maybe some team maneuver drills too, except for the little used fact that saturating your chakra into an object makes it feel lighter to the carrier. He wanted our chakra to mix, so we could figure out how to use chakra-merge!"

(Stop "Chakra Merge Training")

"So... now what?" Naruto asked, clueless.

"Now," a voice from right beside them snapped, "you can put the log down. It's served it's purpose."

"Ahhhh!" they screamed and threw the log at the source of the voice, only to see Hayato pull out his sword and slice it in half in the blink of an eye. "DON'T DO THAT!!"

"Really need to work on awareness," Hayato commented, waving for the genin to follow.

(Play "Bunshin")

_Next Day_

_The Swamp_

"This IS _IMPOSSIBLE_!!" Naruto screamed in frustration as he and his teammates worked on their latest 'chakra control exercise from Hell'.

Hayato had developed it after seeing the progress each of them made in learning the 'chakra control' techniques they'd taught to each other the afternoon before. Particularly when Kasumi revealed how it was the _Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken_ was taught and learned originally before the Mugen Tenshin clan seemingly revised it. Literally, the ninja had to move their hands fast enough that they could remove hot chestnuts from an open flame. The trick was the particular way chakra is channeled through the arms so that pretty much the person's chakra _pushed_ their hands and arms faster than their muscles ever could.

Combined with Ryu's family secret of increasing their chakra senses, and Naruto's chakra strings technique, it made for a very... damaging exercise. Open flames, thanks to Ryu's _Katon_ jutsu, were easy to produce, and then a single shuriken was placed into the middle of the flame. The object of the exercise was to use the rapid punching technique to move the hand fast enough to avoid the flames, then use the chakra string technique to grab the shuriken, while using chakra sensing to confirm that one string is attached to each of the five points of the shuriken, one string coming from each of their fingertips, and then use the strings to pull it out seeing how hot the metal could potentially get and everything.

Level one of the exercise was without the flame, just confirming that they could actually attach chakra strings from each of their fingertips to the shuriken in the first place. Final level, wait until the metal is red hot.

Needless to say, Naruto was having some trouble succeeding in performing the exercise.

"Just stay calm Naruto," Kasumi advised, as she reached in her hand a blurring speed, but failed to confirm that all five strings were attached and had to toss the shuriken back into the fire. "Work on increasing your chakra sense first, then mold the chakra the way I showed you."

"Hai, hai, hai," Naruto mumbled and took deep breaths while focusing his chakra.

The day, so far, had been just as demanding as every day had been so far for the rookie genin. Get to the platform at the center of the Swamp at exactly 6AM on the dot. Do whatever level of Reps they were on, (Kasumi and Ryu were both still on Level 1, Naruto was now doing Level 2 with metal plates and shuriken instead of leafs). Then an hour of Tips, followed by their newest exercise in mastering their various 'homework' techniques. And as if that weren't bad enough, their homework for today, given to them last night when Hayato let them go at 6pm, as for _each_ of them to find and learn a new _Bunshin no jutsu_, or clone technique.

The stipulation, of course, would be that it could not be something that one of them already knew, nor the Academy-taught Bunshin, despite the fact that Naruto couldn't perform that technique to save his own life. Thankfully, Hayato was reasonable enough that he said they didn't have to be able to do the technique just yet, but they learned enough that eventually they could, and at the same time teach it to their teammates.

Before they started their Reps, Hayato inquired about their homework status, and so they showed him. Naruto confessed to running to the Hokage and begging him for a new Bunshin jutsu again, and given that Naruto left behind shadow clones to finish the man's piles of paperwork again, while reporting on what their team was up to at the same time, the Hokage was more than happy to give Naruto another quick glance at the Forbidden Scroll for the follow-up technique to the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. Specifically, the _Bunshin Daibakuha_ (Clone Great Explosion).

When Hayato and Ryu hesitantly asked if Naruto had learned how to do it yet, he reluctantly answered that he was too tired to really master it, but he remembered everything the Hokage had told him about it, and the pictures in the scroll to help him figure it out, and he'd already memorized the hand seals too. Sighing in relief, Hayato told him that they would wait until after lunch before working with their new clone jutsu.

Next up, Ryu revealed that his family, specifically another one of his many uncles, had been involved in the war against Iwa and had as a result almost been forced to learn how to do the _Doton: Iwa Bunshin no jutsu _(Earth Release: Earth Clone technique). Ryu learned it by heart the night before, and managed to successfully perform the jutsu, once. After staying up half the night learning how, of course.

Kasumi, on the other hand, brought a scroll that her older brother had personally given to her, before she could even make the request on learning a Bunshin jutsu. The scroll contained the details on how to perform the _Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no jutsu _(Water Release: Water Clone Technique), and like Ryu, she stayed up for most of the night practicing on her own until she was able to create a near-perfect water clone. After her, and Ryu's failure at being able to perform the _Kage Bunshin no jutus_, both of them were very gratified at being able to perform even these lower-level techniques.

What really had the genin worried, however, was the exercise that was supposed to come after their current one set. The days before, they'd done Revolutions. But Hayato had smashed Old Misery to splinters after they'd finally learned how to merge their chakra, so they weren't exactly sure what was supposed to happen next in that regard. They worked until about an hour before their usual lunchtime, when Hayato suddenly called for them to stop. Thankfully, each of them had managed to complete the exercise and for the last ten minutes had been attaching the chakra strings, _confirming_ they were attached and removing the shuriken on every blurring swipe of their hands. And they had the burns to prove it.

"While you three were busy, I've been doing a bit of my own work," Hayato chuckled in that very sinister way he had. He pulled out a scroll and with just a drop of blood and a surge of chakra, which they all felt quite clearly, unsealed what was stored within it. That turned out to be a solid concrete pillar that was the exact same shape and size as Old Misery had been. Kasumi almost fainted, Naruto's jaw dropped to the floor, and Ryu was quickly considering the pros and cons of going _nukenin _(Missing Ninja)!

"I call her Silent Misery, quiet as a rock. Don't worry. Just one lap, that's all, and then you get to rest until 12, when we'll have lunch. Promise," the jounin grinned at them, one hand held behind his back.

"I. Hate. You," Naruto stated, right before he stepped forward and took the middle position on the concrete pillar. Kasumi and Ryu shared a look, then cursed Hayato with their opinions of him before moving forward to help Naruto in picking up the, undoubtedly several hundred kilograms heavy concrete pillar.

It took them over five minutes just to maneuver it so they could all three even lift it, and another three minutes past that just to lift it high enough to get it over their heads. The moment they had it off the ground, all three of them were pushing their chakra into it as much as they possibly could. It took them the same eight minutes to lift it before they managed to attain that same balance of chakra levels where their chakra stopped fighting and successfully merged. Once that was done, thankfully, the pillar was as light as Old Misery had ever been, compared to Silent Misery that was much of an improvement.

The real surprise came when they stepped out onto the water, their feet almost immediately sinking below the water. Thankfully they'd all started off with one foot over the platform and managed to pull themselves back up, without dropping Silent Misery. It didn't take long for them to figure out that the concrete pillar weight a _lot_ more than the old log ever had, and they would need to channel quite a bit of chakra to their feet to keep from falling in, let alone sinking to the bottom!

It took more effort than anything Hayato had demanded of them yet, but they managed to complete the Revolution without falling in once, each of them too afraid of what might happen if they allowed themselves to fall in while holding onto the multi-hundred-kilogram concrete pillar. They finished the lap with just ten minutes to spare before lunchtime, and Hayato kept to his word, letting them collapse on the platform and rest for those ten minutes before producing their daily bentos.

"Ugh, I miss having Ichiraku Ramen for lunch," Naruto moaned as he consumed his lunch at a more sedate pace than usual. That last exercise had taken a lot out of all of them.

"Well, this is almost as good," Hayato told the blond. "Ichiraku Ayame happened to make these lunches that I've been serving you guys. All I had to do was mention Naruto's name here, and she almost did it for free. I'm an honest ninja, however, so as long as they're healthy and nutritious, I pay her for the meals and Ichiraku Ramen has a new 'To Go' service offered with their ramen."

"Seriously?" Naruto perked up at hearing this information. "Ayame-chan made these?"

"Just for you and your teammates, Naruto," Hayato confirmed.

Suddenly, Naruto was eating a lot more enthusiastically than before.

After lunch, they spent some more time on the Tipping Point exercise, and then another hour doing Reps, until finally, around mid-afternoon, Hayato asked them to work amongst themselves on mastering their various Bunshin jutsu. Of course, the _very_ first thing Naruto did was create just over a hundred shadow clones, all of which spread out and started working on mastering the _Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_ while the original stood close to Ryu and Kasumi as they showed him step-by-step how to perform their own Bunshin jutsu. After Naruto had confirmed that he understood the basics, and both of them demonstrated they had indeed mastered their own techniques, after hours of work, Naruto took up coaching them further in the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_.

It actually took the rest of the afternoon, with over one hundred shadow clones _each_ working on each technique. Ryu thought it funny on clones making clones, until a group of them actually succeeded in creating a half-dead partial water clone, and he redoubled his own efforts in performing the _Kage Bunshin_.

Hayato, personally, wasn't surprised at the trouble Kasumi and Ryu were having with the _Kage Bunshin_, even after managing to succeed in being able to create one clone apiece in _Iwa Bunshin_ and _Mizu Bunshin_. After all, the former was a full rank above the latter two, with _Iwa Bunshin no jutsu_ and _Mizu Bunshin no jutsu_ being C-Rank support techniques. Relying more on the elements present for the clones solid form than pure chakra meant they could afford to create at least one clone, maybe more, especially since they both came from families that prided themselves on being able to learn jutsu quickly. It just so happened the Mugen Tenshin clan focused more on taijutsu and ninjutsu while the Hayabusa clan focused mostly on taijutsu and weapons. Therefore, given how they felt with Naruto's ability to create literally hundreds of clones with a single technique, it's no surprise that they succeeded in mastering their own techniques in just one night.

'_Two geniuses and the _Dead Last_ of their class, who just so happens to be the most powerful of the three of them. Who could have guessed that _I _would be their sensei of all jounin?_' he thought to himself as he watched them all work on mastering their numerous techniques.

Naruto, unfortunately, had the _Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_ down after the first hour, seeing how when the clones blew themselves up, their memories transferred back to Naruto and all the other clones, who immediately applied what had been learned and by the time all one hundred had blown themselves up, Naruto had been lectured on the other two Bunshin jutsu and summoned up another three hundred clones, the last one hundred working on improving _Bunshin Daibakuha_ even further. Thankfully the clones learned to stay on water and away from the trees so the most that happened was a lot of water spouts, making everybody wet.

At the same time Naruto was learning at 'shadow clone speed', Kasumi and Ryu quickly learned and more or less mastered the other's Bunshin jutsu just as fast as they had their own. It took a few tries to get it right, but they succeeded within the first hour that Naruto had taught himself _Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_ and learned the other two as well. It would be downright impressive, if not for the fact that Naruto was 'cheating' just a bit and Ryu and Kasumi could only create one clone at a time, having to dispel their earth clone or water clone in order to make the other appear at all.

"Hm, more chakra-intensive training then," Hayato muttered to himself, idly flipping through his book while observing the genin train themselves in multiple clone techniques.

"C'mon, Kasumi-chan, you can do it!" Naruto encouraged the chestnut-haired kunoichi as she held the cross-seal and focused her chakra.

"Damnit!" Ryu screamed out loud in frustration. He was standing next to a dead-looking clone, despite the fact that it was solid, it poofed out of existence at the slightest touch.

"Hey, that's great Ryu! It took me twenty tries before I got one that substantial the first time I learned _Kage Bunshin_!" Naruto acknowledged. "Keep up the good work! Oh, time to re-supply the clones," he absently turned away from them as the last of the exploding clones vanquished themselves. Just before he could form another hundred however, the Iwa and Mizu Bunshin creating clones decided that they were close enough it was time to 'download' and each began dispersing in groups of ten, waiting five to ten seconds before another group went. While this was going on, Naruto froze, processing the incoming information as fast as he possibly could.

When it was over and there was only one Naruto in the Swamp once more, he just stood there, blinking for about thirty seconds before a wicked 'pranking' grin spread across his face. Forming the familiar cross-seal, he formed another hundred clones, who all quickly dispersed. Then, Naruto walked over to the water and formed the seals for the _Mizu Bunshin no jutsu_. Instantly, the water in the Swamp actually lowered a full inch as near countless water clones sprung up out of the swamp water.

"All right, you know what to do!" Naruto commanded to the water clone army. They nodded as one, a bit less expressive than the shadow clones, and spread out. Then, one by one, they started exploding.

"Oh shit," Hayato, Ryu, and Kasumi cursed in one voice. Naruto had figured out how to expand _Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_ to the other two Bunshin jutsu. That was further proven when the hundred shadow clones he'd just made returned with ten earth clones each and one by one _those_ clones started to blow themselves up, one at a time, making each explosion more and more destructive as all the clones learned from the one that was dispelled and applied it to their own technique.

"I," Ryu growled, forming the cross-seal, "am not," his chakra spiked, so much so that a ring of blue fire flared up around his legs and his hair lifted up from the power, "GOING," he was shouting as his chakra grew more and more intense, "TO LOSE!!"

At the final declaration, Ryu's chakra seemingly passed a barrier and there was an explosion of smoke all around him. When it cleared, they could all clearly see three Ryu's standing there, one of them crouched over, seemingly exhausted while the other two looked perfectly fine.

"ALL RIGHT! You did it Ryu!" Naruto exclaimed in joy for his friend and teammate.

Kasumi was also smiling, but she was also determined more than ever to not fall behind.

'_Screw it!_' she thought to herself, '_I'm not going to come anywhere close to completing this today at the rate I've been going! I need to stop holding back and _finish _this_, NOW_! I'll be useless for the rest of the day, but sometimes you've just got to push yourself. Rule number two, don't hold back in training as it prepares us for the real world!_'

Decision made, Kasumi took a deep breath and reached as deep as she could possibly go, and then pushed herself even further. Moments later, her chakra flared up just as powerfully as Ryu's had, more even as she formed the familiar cross-seal and completed the technique. At the peak of her power, there was an explosion of white smoke, which filled the platform. It cleared within seconds, and the boys were floored as they witnessed Kasumi standing amongst a group of _three shadow clones_!

"WHOA!" Naruto shouted out loud. "WAY TO GO, Kasumi-chan!!"

"Th-th-thanks, N-n-n-Naruto..." Kasumi gasped, sweating and about to drop. The chakra drain was enormous, she was discovering.

"Quickly," the first of the clones said to each of the others. They nodded in turn and quickly moved off to perform some basic task. One ran in amongst the Naruto-clones on the water, and began running up and down the trees, doing basic Reps for as long as it could exist. Another one ran over to the kunai and started working on Tips, careful not to damage themselves as she did one-finger-handstands. The last one started working on the combo chakra strings/sensing/rapid punching exercise, minus the fire of course.

"Uh, Kasumi-chan?" Naruto quietly asked.

"Sorry," she gasped, on her knees and heavily sweating now. "But, I figured, since I went... all out... I should take full advantage of it, while I could..."

"Hey, that's probably a good idea," one of the two Ryu-clones said to the other.

"Reps?" the other one offered. The first one shrugged, then nodded.

"One of you do Reps, the other take the last kunai and do Tips. I think you know what will happen if you prick your finger or anything, right?" the original Ryu reminded the shadow clone. He was looking almost as exhausted as Kasumi now was.

Naruto stayed close to his teammates, while the clones worked on their exercises for as long as they could. At the same time, all of Naruto's clones slowly finished up, though it took the better part of the next hour. Ryu held out for twenty minutes before he had to dispel both his clones. They seemed to draw chakra from him whenever their own was about to run out, and he didn't have enough to bother with resupplying them, so he let them dispel.

Kasumi, unfortunately barely lasted half as long, and when she reached her limit it all happened at once. The original Kasumi passed out, her eyes rolling up in her head as she went limp on the platform. The instant before that, the clone doing Reps popped at the same time, followed by the others popping one after the other.

"And, she's done," Hayato commentated as he walked over. "I think we're done early for today," he told the boys as he easily picked the kunoichi up in his arms. "I'll take Kasumi-hime here home, let her family take care of her. Oh, get that look off your face, Naruto. It's simply a case of chakra exhaustion. Probably not something you've ever really experienced before, but expect it to happen to your teammates quite a lot in the future. Even me at some points, probably. Good thing that she worked on her chakra reserves so much this week, otherwise she might have had to go to the hospital. But three shadow clones for five minutes each, she's stronger than even she thinks she is."

Naruto looked crestfallen, and a bit lost, not sure what to say or do.

"Don't worry," Hayato comforted the boy, "All Kasumi needs is a good nights sleep, a bit of rest and some food when she wakes up, which will probably be in a couple days. Like I said, it's just chakra exhaustion, so she won't be bedridden for days at a time like most ninja would be if it were anything more serious. Naruto, finish up here, then help Ryu get home. If you're conscious, I'll expect to see all three of you here tomorrow morning, all right?"

With that, he left.

(Stop "Bunshin")

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

_Two Days Later_

_Clearing just outside of "The Swamp"_

_5:58AM_

"Hold it!" Hayato's voice rang out through the clearing, freezing his three genin before they could launch themselves over the fence. "Change of plans... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!" he screamed when all three of them spun around and threw dozens of shuriken, kunai and senbon needles in his general direction. Thanks to them all having learned the variations of the _shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu_ (shuriken/kunai/senbon shadow clone technique) the day before they'd only had to throw one weapon each to have dozens land.

"DON'T STARTLE US LIKE THAT!!" all three of them shouted in turn.

"Geez! Now we're going to be late..." Ryu muttered, scuffing the ground with his foot.

"As I was about to explain," Hayato growled, annoyed as he pulled a needle out of one armored glove and a shuriken out of the other, "there's been a change of plans. I didn't tell you last night because I've been waiting on a certain package, so to speak, and it only arrived late last night. We'll be doing today's training out here in the clearing and the trees, moving into the Swamp as necessary."

"Uh... why?" Naruto asked, genuinely confused by this change in venue.

"Go ahead and sit down for a bit, I'll explain," Hayato gestured to a fallen tree trunk. "First of all though, Kasumi, if you would please explain to me what your class was taught in the Academy about tactics and strategy. Have patience you two, I will explain, but I need to know what you know first of all."

Kasumi nodded her acknowledgment and began to explain the basics which were taught at the Ninja Academy. Hayato then asked her pointed questions and looked annoyed when he heard the responses. Finally, he stopped asking questions and just sat there looking... pensive would be the best word.

"I'm not going to bother asking why it is that your class was not taught some rather basic mandates when it comes to overall strategy," he finally spoke. "I'm just going to outright tell the three of you to completely ignore everything you've been told about strategy and tactics up till now, and I'm going to teach you everything you'll ever need to know about the subject."

"Well, that's not going to be too hard, I never really understood most of what they talked about during that class anyway," Naruto commented.

"The most basic definition of strategy is simply this; it is a plan of action intended to accomplish a goal. Nothing more, nothing less. It gets complicated when your goal, or goals as it happens, get more numerous or more difficult, but that's what strategy means. Tactics, on the other hand, are what the action required to follow a strategy is called. For example," he paused to stick a kunai into a soft hill next to his log, "say that you're attacking a single ninja standing at the top of the hill. He's a long-range expert, so he can afford to stand out in the open as all three of you are close-range fighters with only one or two long-range techniques."

"Your goal," he said as he singled out three pebbles around the soft hill, "is to defeat the ninja. Just charging right up to him won't work, you'll be dead before you can take ten steps." Using the chakra-strings technique to drag the pebbles along the ground, he talked them through a couple of options.

"So, in order to defeat this lone ninja, you need to come up with a strategy, and you probably would all on your own without knowing what to call it. Ryu, you'd probably call it 'Plan B' or something like that. Naruto, if you came up with it, you would only really think of it as an idea that you came up with and not think about it any more than that. But that's OK. It's what I'm here for. Now, a good commonly used and popular to use tactic is to surround the enemy." The three pebbles formed a triangle around the kunai on the hill. "Even if this were a Hyuuga who had the Byakugan, nobody is infallible. Another option is called the shadow maneuver, as one attacker follows in the shadow of the other and both charge, switching out to defend or attack as needed. Of course you can always try attacking from above, or overwhelm the enemy with power, speed, weapons, or any other advantage you may have on your side at the time. All of these actions are tactics. Put them all together with the goal and you have a strategy. Understand?"

Ryu nodded, having understood from the beginning, Kasumi having a better grasp than her teammates, seeing how she'd come up with multiple tactics during their test demonstrating her tactical mind already. Naruto was the one paying the closest attention and had his face scrunched up in concentration. After about a minute of heavy silence, the blue-eyed blond slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I get it," he finally said.

"Good. Because starting today, I am going to cram every single last tactic, strategy, stratagem, plan, and team maneuver that Konoha uses or has ever used into your heads and we will not stop until you have learned every single one of them by heart! Any questions?" he shouted and then suddenly asked sweetly.

Gulping, both at his tone and the implications of what their sensei was saying, the genin briefly considered running away as fast as they possibly could.

"OK, let me remind you what it is you three told me on day one," Hayato picked up his kunai and put it away, sounding aggravated, though he looked concerned. "Kasumi-hime here came up with the brilliant idea that you three should become a Support Team. I tried to explain to you what that would exactly mean, but apparently it still hasn't fully sunk in yet. Konoha has lots of different ninja teams under it's command. Some teams only last as long as a single mission as the requirements for the mission demand a special team be created in order to accomplish the mission. Your average Support Team more often than not means civilian support, meaning they guard caravans, distribute food and supplies, and maybe do some D-Rank mission type tasks far away from Konoha. A True Support Team, however, means that you can mix and match the team or even just one team member to any other team and they'll fit in just fine, better than fine even."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know all that!" Naruto grumbled. "Where in that does it say that we have to do the impossible?! Learning _ALL_ the strategies and tactics in Konoha in a _DAY_?!! _Come ON_!!"

"It means, Naruto," the jounin growled, "that all three of you are going to have to be trained as an 'Everyman Team'. You can't focus on just one area like all the other teams and ninja in Konoha do! You can't focus on just your attack power and fit in only with the Assault and Front Line Teams! At the same time, you can't just focus on your tracking skills, defense skills, or ninjutsu! You have to focus equally on everything, otherwise you won't fit in with everybody! That's my point, Naruto! You three have to be trained as an Assault Team, as a Front Line Team, as a Defensive Team, as a Tracker Team, as a Submission or Vanguard Team, as a Cavalry Support Team... I have to train you to be an equal to every single type of team that Konoha uses!"

Naruto, being the focus of the older ninja's declaration gulped quietly to himself before looking the man in the eye. "I... I... I..." the genin stuttered for a moment, glancing down at his feet for a minute. When he looked back up, his eyes held the same fire-born steel that inspired Kasumi to defy the odds and brought Team One together.

"I KNOW THAT ALREADY!" he shouted, getting up into the jounin's face. "And don't think that I don't know how tough you've got it while we're the ones doing all the work! Yeah, I notice stuff! For one thing, even I know I'm not the smartest ninja around, and you have to take time explaining stuff to me! Not to mention, Kasumi-chan and Ryu work with me everyday after we're through here, even though they're beyond exhausted and we have to do your stupid little 'Homework Assignments', they still stick around and help me work on my taijutsu! All you had to say was that we have to do the impossible if you say we have to do the impossible, and that's that!"

Naruto stood there, huffing deep breaths for a moment, his face flushed with emotion, but he wasn't done yet. "You're supposed to be our Jounin Sensei, even if you were hired to make sure we failed at first, you saw something in us that made you give us an actual chance! And we took that chance and actually won! It's supposed to be impossible for genin to beat a jounin, right? And that chakra-merge thing! Kasumi says that's supposed to be impossible too, right? Well, I'm not about to give up on my dream, and we've all decided that we are going to be Konoha's Number 1 Support Team! Right?" He looked back at his friends.

Ryu was grinning and had been for several minutes. He stood up beside the blond and nodded, answering, "Right!" Kasumi was only a step behind him, also grinning and said, "Right!"

"So there! Bring it on!" Naruto declared.

Hayato chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he looked down at the ground. After a few seconds, the chuckles escaped and he began laughing out loud, throwing his head back as he got the joke the universe had played on him. He'd probably be laughing about this for the rest of his life. Hell, now they'd even gotten him fired up to get it done as soon as possible, not just to prove that it could be done, but that they could do it the fastest out of everybody out there.

"All right!" he shouted at them, his sadistic grin at full bore. "Here's the deal! I got special permission from the Hokage to gain copies of the 'Konoha Playbook'. That's the layman's term for all of Konoha's most common tactics and the non-wartime-use strategies. I am going to teach you every single tactic and strategy in this Playbook, and then I am going to drill you in them until you can do every single last one of them perfectly! Just to further motivate you, here's the rules; we don't move onto a new tactic or strategy until you have demonstrated that you can use these tactics flawlessly ten times over. When learning a new tactic, I will verbally quiz you on details of strategies you've already learned, you will answer them immediately, or go do one hundred Reps as punishment. More Reps you end up having to do, the longer this is going to take! Are you ready?"

"HAI!" they all snapped to attention, not even needing to look at one another to confirm the decision.

"Then let's get started," he said in a normal tone. He pulled out a scroll and began teaching.

_Two Days Later_

_Mugen Tenshin Compound_

_6:30 PM_

"My head hurts," Naruto whined from the spot on the floor where he lay.

"You've been saying that for the past half hour, Naruto," Ryu pointed out. "It wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that bad?" Naruto sat up and glared at the white-gi-wearing youth. "_Wasn't that bad_? _WASN'T THAT BAD_?!! He actually crammed _I-DON'T-KNOW-HOW-MANY_ team maneuvers and city strategies and personal tactics into our heads in just _TWO DAYS_!! I feel like I made a thousand and one clones and then dispelled them all at once." He collapsed back on the floor.

"Well, look at the bright side, it's over now," Ryu tried to cheer his friend up.

"My head hurts."

"Oh shut up," he snapped at the prostrate blond.

"You two aren't fighting again, are you?" Kasumi called as she entered the dojo.

"No!" both boys quickly cried.

"Good," she smiled at the pair. "Now, Naruto, you've been getting a lot better with your taijutsu. You're actually as good as Ryu and I are with the basics. Now you just need to develop your own style. I figure tomorrow, if we actually have time after team training, Ryu can take you to see that uncle of his that's teaching him martial arts. In the meantime, what do you guys want to do?"

"Bah! I'm tired of training!" Naruto exclaimed.

"For once, I actually agree," Ryu stated. "There's got to be something we can do besides more training, right?"

"Like what?" Naruto asked.

"Hm," Kasumi tapped her chin in thought. "Well, I don't know if you guys would like it, but we could play a card game," she offered.

"Eh?!"

"What kind of card game?" Naruto asked as Kasumi led him and Ryu to her room. Apparently Kasumi actually had several 'rooms' in the compound. Currently she was taking them to her 'Game Room'.

"Well, the technical term is," she giggled, "Trading Card Game. I have several to choose from. None of the rules are hard and I usually have a lot of fun with them. Unfortunately, I don't exactly have a lot of people to play games with these days."

"Sounds fun!" Naruto said enthusiastically.

"Sounds boring," Ryu honestly remarked. "I've heard of these kinds of games. I never bothered wasting my money collecting enough cards to bother with it, to be honest."

Kasumi just smiled and shrugged, privately hurt by the statement. Naruto caught onto this and hit Ryu across the back of his head, hissing at him, "Baka!"

"What?" Ryu didn't understand why Naruto had hit him.

"Here we are," Kasumi opened a door along the left side of the hallway. Suddenly they boys understood why this was called the Game Room. From floor to ceiling there were boardgames, cards, books, and other toys for all ages stacked up against the walls, while cabinets and tables catered to specific items or setups. It looked like every game that was ever sold or played in Konoha had at least one example of it here in this room.

"Whoa!" Ryu exclaimed at the sight.

"Wow!" Naruto, on the other hand, was overjoyed at the sight of this many toys and games. "All this is yours, Kasumi-chan?"

"Well, it was," she shrugged, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, blushing as she answered. "I suppose I should give a number of these things to charity, or pass it on to the younger members of the clan, who I'm sure will enjoy it all more than I can."

"Oh wow! What's this?" Naruto raced over to look at something that caught his eye.

"Better stop him, no telling how big a mess he'll make unless you do," Ryu whispered to the girl.

Her eyes went wide and she quickly caught up with the hyperactive blond. "Uh, Naruto, why don't we start getting you some cards so you can play. While we do that, I'll explain the rules and how to play. Ryu can join in, if he wants to. But I doubt Mr. 'I never bothered' will know how to play either."

"Cool!" Naruto was too overjoyed to really appreciate the dig against their brown-haired friend, but Ryu was more than prepared to accept the challenge.

"Oh really? Well prepare to get your butts whooped!" he crowed. After a beat, he softly asked Kasumi, "Uh, you do have 'Duel Monsters', right?"

The chestnut-haired kunoichi smiled prettily at them and announced, "I'm pretty sure that I have just about every TCG that they sell in Konoha, including Duel Monsters, Ryu."

_Four Hours Later_

"I attack your Life Points directly! HA! That's the duel!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing and laughing triumphantly at a downcast Ryu.

"I can't believe this..." the older boy wailed. "We've turned him into a monster! No, worse, far worse that the most foul demon from the pits of Hell! A _game-enthusiast_!! AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"Oh stop being so melodramatic, you lost, get over it," Kasumi berated the boy, in a foul mood herself after having lost ten times in a row to 'Beginner' Uzumaki Naruto.

"Still want to let him have those cards that he 'won'?" Ryu asked as Naruto began doing a strange little victory dance. Boy, I really hope he doesn't do this if he ever wins a fight against somebody, Ryu thought.

Kasumi sighed, then smiled and nodded. "Why not? It's not like I'll ever really use them outside of this room. Besides, they're all ninja cards, and the Seven Swordsmen series of cards. I much prefer my water deck to be perfectly honest. Still, I never really thought Naruto would be a natural at card games like this."

"Must be luck of the draw or something like that," Ryu shrugged. "Anyway, it's getting late, and we've all still got training in the morning. I think it's time we all turned in, eh?"

"Aw, but I was having so much fun!" Naruto whined.

"Well, I meant what I said earlier, you can keep those cards, Naruto," Kasumi said.

"Really? You're the greatest Kasumi-chan!" he impulsively leapt forward and hugged her.

She froze for one instant, then practically melted, her smile warm as she hugged him back. Ryu almost felt jealous for an instant, until the image really hit him, and he squelched any jealous feelings instantly. The two of them hugging was like watching a brother and sister hug on the street, and not just because Kasumi was a few inches taller than Naruto. There was an emotion, a feeling that just screamed 'Brother-Sister' to anyone witnessing it.

"OK, enough with the drama," Ryu interrupted their embrace. "Much as I'd love hugging Kasumi-hime all night, you and I have got a long walk ahead of us, Naruto. Time for us to go."

"Oh, all right," Naruto grumbled, then perked up as he said to his female teammate, "See you tomorrow, Kasumi-chan! Have a good night!"

"Good night Naruto," she said as she walked them to the door, which unfortunately was not that far away, "Good night Ryu. I will see you both in the morning. Hopefully without having to worry about anymore drills or anything."

"Ugh, I'm gonna have nightmares about that, I just know it," Naruto complained.

"Could be worse," Ryu off-handedly remarked. "We could have to fight Hayato-sensei all over again."

"DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT!!" Kasumi and Naruto screamed into both of his ears.

"Ow," he whimpered in pain all the way home.

"Good night Naruto," Kasumi gave a final farewell. "Pleasant dreams."

"Night Kasumi-chan!" Naruto cried as he raced away in the night.

_The Next Day_

_The Swamp_

_6AM_

(Play "Team One Gets Stronger")

"You're on time," Hayato stated as all three genin appeared on the platform together. He sounded surprised.

"We're always on time," Naruto countered.

"Let's just say that I've been scouting the other rookie genin teams from your year, and it's an anomaly," Hayato said. "Team 7 arrives more or less when their sensei tells them to show up, sometimes a few minutes late, but their Jounin Sensei is Hatake Kakashi, who is known for being late to everything. Team 8 has one member that arrives early everyday, one that is always late, and one that is always exactly on time, down to the second. Team 10's members are always late to their training. Every single one of them. You three," Hayato sighed, looking them over, "_always_ arrive together, exactly on time. It's an anomaly."

"And you don't like anomalies, right?" said Ryu.

"It should not matter what the other teams are doing," Kasumi commented, "We are who we are, and they are who they are. Every person, every team is unique in their own way."

"True," Hayato shrugged, his arms still crossed as he looked them over. "Except for when you consider that until you three get more experience, the only teams that you'll be allowed to team up with are those other three teams, and maybe one of the ones from the year before. Fulfilling your own missions is good, but remember, you guys are training to be a Support Team. That means teaming up with other genin teams and matching your own abilities in with theirs. Right now, you three are actually better than your fellow graduates."

"What? Really! Cool!" Naruto and Ryu traded high-fives.

"From the surface anyway," Hayato added, bearing his sadistic grin.

The genin froze. Kasumi suspected, but she wanted to confirm, so she asked him, "What is that supposed to mean, sensei?

"It simply means that to the casual observer," he answered, "you three are better disciplined, have better chakra control, and have been better trained overall. And that's just in the first week of training, where you three have had 6 days of intense training, where your fellow genin have apparently only had four or five at a far less intense pace. But as I said, that's on the surface and to the casual observer."

Kasumi and Ryu both frowned. Ryu was the one to say, "But you, being our sensei, can't afford to acknowledge casual observations. You need to be sure, don't you?" Hayato nodded, still grinning.

"We're going to fight again, aren't we?" Naruto moaned, then he and Kasumi both glared at Ryu.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Could be worse, we could have to fight Hayato-sensei all over again," Kasumi mimicked in a mocking impression of Ryu's voice. "Idiot."

"Oh. That, yeah. Heh, heh, whoops?" Ryu shrugged helplessly.

"So, what are the rules, and how can we win?" Naruto asked, stepping forward.

"You can't," Hayato lost the grin and lowered his arms, getting serious. "This isn't a contest. This'll be more an examination, to see where your level is at right now. How much better, or worse that you do depends entirely on yourselves and your training so far. But, as an incentive, if all three of you can hit me with a combo that utilizes _chakra-merge_ at any point during the fight, then starting tomorrow we'll start doing missions. And, if one or all three of you actually succeed in knocking me out, for even a second, well then... you can name your prize, whether it be a week off from training, free ramen for a month, new weapons, or even an S-Class jutsu. But just so you're aware, now that I've told you that, don't for a second think that I'll make it easy on you."

Kasumi knew he wasn't joking. Her mind was already working, coming up with numerous tactics and strategies as fast as humanly possible, but one thing kept popping up; Hayato was not going to 'let' them get together to figure out an actual technique to use with _chakra-merge_. In fact, he was most likely going to keep them separated to keep them from getting the chance in the first place.

Briefly, she glanced at her teammates and sighed, letting out a breath of frustration. Of course the two of them were fired up and ready to go at a moment's notice. Ryu especially seemed eager to test out their training with a rematch against their sensei. Naruto appeared more sober, but just as intent upon following through. Kasumi smiled and set her own mind on winning by any means necessary.

"Naruto," she said to the blond, "I'm going to need you to stay out of the fight at first."

"WHAT?!" he shouted, dismayed.

"Listen to me," she pulled him aside and whispered directly into his ear so nobody could overhear. "Hayato-sensei is _not_ going to just let us team up and use chakra-merge just like that. Furthermore, he's familiar with our tactics from last time, and how we hid amongst your shadow clones, so he'll be expecting you to come at him from the start. So, instead, I want the real you to hang back and just watch. Look for openings, opportunities, things that we can use to our advantage. And actually, I only need the real you to stay back. Feel free to make as many clones of as many types as you want to." She stepped back and winked at him.

Naruto grinned briefly, before sobering his expression and nodding once.

"Ready when you are, sensei," Kasumi said.

"Go!"

With that, the platform was suddenly empty.

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

(Pause "Team One Gets Stronger")

Naruto considered following Kasumi's instructions to be the hardest thing that had ever been asked of him. All of Hayato's hellish training was a distant chore in comparison to being asked to stand back and just watch. But he did it. He found a tall swamp tree that was a short distance from the platform, and had a good view of the surrounding area as well. He ran up to the top branches and settled into a shadow against the trunk, his black and orange-striped overcoat helping to conceal him from sight. He was also trying to focus on Kasumi's hidden meaning. Hayato-sensei had said the phrase a _lot_ over the past week; _Look Underneath the Underneath_.

Kasumi finally explained it to him while she was showing him how to play cards. A person looks at something and for a civilian they just see what it is, maybe notice a few details. For a professional, if the thing they're looking at is part of their trade, they'll see many more things than anyone else could see. For a ninja, they must see what is hidden in plain sight and understand what it means and what is hidden underneath that and what that means. It was oversimplified, but it was something that Naruto could understand.

Kasumi had told him some things that would make sense, make it look like he was their secret weapon, but at the same time he had this nagging feeling that there was more to it than that. The bit about Hayato-sensei not letting them team up was forefront on his mind. He realized that it was both true and not true at the same time. Hayato-sensei _wanted_ them to team up and use chakra-merge, otherwise he wouldn't have made it a goal for them to win this test, but at the same time he wasn't going to make it easy on them. He was going to make it as hard as real life against enemy ninja would make it.

It was the rest of it that really had him confused. Their tactics? His shadow clones? And he was supposed to just sit back and watch? But then she'd added that part about the _real_ him hanging back and told him to send in as many of his shadow clones as he wanted. But that didn't make any sense!

Hayato was their Jounin Sensei! Not to mention that he literally taught them all of the tactics and strategy that they knew, except maybe for Kasumi-chan, who'd come up with decent tactics in their Genin Exam. So, no matter which way you looked at it Hayato knew everything that they could possibly throw against him, even if Kasumi came up with a fool-proof plan, the moment he saw them using it against him, it would never work again, using that logic!

So what did she mean, about having him send in his shadow clones?

Of course! Naruto almost snapped his fingers as the answer came to him, thankfully managing to stop himself from making any noise to give away his position.

That's what Kasumi wanted! Naruto gained his shadow clones' memories and experiences after they dispelled! She wants him to learn Hayato's own tactics and then when they were ready they could use that against him! But... Hayato would figure this out eventually, and all he'd have to do is follow where the clones were coming from to find Naruto himself, if he couldn't already sense his presence anyway.

Naruto froze as another idea struck his brain. _That's_ what she really wanted him to do? No wonder that girl was considered a genius by everyone who knew her, even if she wasn't as praised as Uchiha Sasuke and others like him, Kasumi was without a doubt a genius ninja.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto let out a small sigh as he focused his chakra in the exercise Ryu had taught him a few days before, making his chakra network tense and flexible so that his entire body was like the wire of a trap, able to detect the vibration of anything that came across it. In this case, his whole body suddenly became super-sensitive to chakra emissions, although he still wasn't very good at it.

After a minute of intense concentration, he felt something. He closed his eyes and concentrated harder. It wasn't very clear, and it was even harder to discern whatever it was amidst all the 'noise' of everything else his body was telling him. After a certain point, the blackness of closing his eyes and listening and feeling turned into too much information all at once, as _everything_ gave off a chakra signature that he could sense. But, as he waited and concentrated and patiently sought to understand what he was feeling, it became clear to him.

_There_! An explosion of chakra... no, merely the chakra being expelled all at once in a short burst instead of a slower and larger build-up, something which could be more easily traced. Then another! And another!

'_Footsteps,_' Naruto slowly realized. Tracking the path of 'chakra bursts' from his current position, he realized they made a path. Footsteps of a ninja leaping through the trees. Opening himself to more input, he did his best to take it all in. It was like a kaleidescope of colors, sounds, sensations, hot, cold, harsh, soft, loud, red, yellow, blue, black, gray, all of it at once and all around him each just as intense as the next and the first and the last.

He did not give into frustration however. If anything, spending time with Ryu had taught him that there was a time and a place to lose your temper and complain about being uncomfortable. This was not it. So, he took another calming breath and refocused his concentration, seeking to understand what he was sensing.

It took a long time. Well, maybe not so long, but it felt like an eternity to Naruto. He could barely even detect those chakra bursts amongst all the chakra nature had to offer and those bursts dissipated almost as soon as they happened in the first place. So he paid attention to nature for a little bit, trying to understand what some of the things he sensed truly were.

There was this one chakra signature, small, jumping around up in the higher tree branches. Thankfully the trees were easy to detect, them being all around him and giving off a... a _green_ signature to his mind's eye. Not that Naruto actually saw colors or saw or heard anything with his eyes closed as he sat there in the shadow of the tree, but his chakra, which he held taut _sensed_ it. When he heard a bird whistle and call out with his ears, then felt the curious chakra signature fly through the air as he heard the bird sing as it flew overhead, he realized what he was feeling was the bird's chakra!

'_Then that means..._' Naruto was excited as he made this discovery and slowly, one by one, began identifying the things that he sensed with his chakra to what his other senses told him they were. It was like learning to walk and crawl all over again. Finally, though far from complete, Naruto had enough understanding that he could sense what was going on around him.

The 'footsteps' he'd felt earlier had belonged to Hayato, he'd figured out. Now that he could identify what the natural things around him were doing, he could identify Hayato's presence not by the chakra he emitted himself, but by his presence amongst nature, and how the animals, insects, trees, even the wind sort of moved around his presence. Oh it was far from perfect, and he'd only figured out as much as he had because his sensei was moving around so much. If he remained perfectly still, Naruto seriously doubted that he would have ever detected him, even if he'd searched for a hundred years!

Suddenly, he felt his teammates move in, and he realized what he'd been missing, but could now see, so to speak. Ryu moved in on Hayato's flank, while Kasumi threw a few senbon before multiplying them with the _Senbon Kage Bunshnin no jutsu_ (Senbon needle Shadow Clone technique) as a distraction. Hayato simply used _Kawarimi no jutsu_ to get out of the way and turned Ryu's tactic back on him, only for Ryu to follow his sensei's lead with _Kawarimi_.

Naruto _felt_ each of these techniques explode or flow out from the spot ten meters to his left where this encounter was taking place. It painted a picture for him as real as anything he ever saw with his eyes, though the information might have been delayed by however long it took him to interpret the information from the sensations his chakra felt and his understanding of what it meant. He did his best to follow Hayato-sensei as the jounin moved about, using only basic ninjutsu and running about faster than anything his teammates could detect. He really really wanted to go in there and help them out, but Kasumi-chan told him to stay back and observe. And... and _send in his shadow clones_!!

Naruto's eyes snapped open as his hands moved together into the cross-seal almost as an afterthought. His chakra was still tensed, but loose enough that he could still use techniques without losing 'sight' of what his chakra senses were telling him. The really amazing thing though was all of a sudden he could _feel_ his own chakra coming together as he formed his shadow clones. He realized that Kasumi-chan was right, he really did use about ten times too much chakra.

What really surprised him though was how he could keep a tighter reign on his chakra now, and even as he could sense it 'clouding' all around him, he felt that he had a lot more control than he'd had before. On an impulse, he reached out and tried to take all that excess chakra that was just escaping into the air and did his best to redirect it into creating a few more clones. It would seem that his best was good enough as when he opened his eyes, instead of the fifty clones he'd shot for, he saw about 70 to 75!

Thankfully, they all understood their mission. They quickly spread out, the extra twenty heading for where he last sensed Hayato, while the original re-settled in the shadow of the tree and concentrated on tracking all of his clones and 'watching' the fight at the same time.

(Play "Team One Gets Stronger")

"Geez, what the hell is he thinking? I told him to stay back," Kasumi muttered as she chased down Hayato, Ryu just ahead of her.

"Well, you know Naruto," Ryu called back, "he can't help himself when there's a fight. Besides, I think all of us were looking forward to this rematch."

"Even so..." she trailed off, glancing off to the direction she'd felt Naruto's shadow clones coming from.

"Yeah," Ryu said as he pulled back on his pursuit to leap higher into the branches of the trees, Kasumi following along, "I know. Because he did so much in our first fight... he's the reason we passed the test. The two of us may be geniuses and done better in the Academy, but we wouldn't be ninja right now if not for Naruto. So..."

"So," she agreed, both of them with a glint of fiery determination in their eyes.

"We need to prove that we're strong enough to be on Naruto's team," they finished as one.

"Very touching," a voice called from above them.

"I thought so too," a different voice called, right before it shouted, "_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!"

"What...!"

Hayato spun in mid-air, barely dodging the shuriken assault in time and having to break off his sneak attack on Ryu and Kasumi as about ten Naruto's showed up swinging from the branches, including the one that had launched his own sneak attack.

"Don't worry guys," that Naruto called out to them. "I'm still hanging back, but I figured you could use some tactical support, so the Boss sent us shadow clones in to be Kasumi-chan's personal army. Think of us as your personal weapons, Hime!"

Kasumi giggled, knowing only Naruto would ever say something like that and nodded to the clones, before her turning her expression serious and gave a couple hand signs to the rest while Hayato was still distracted. Ryu quickly caught on and did a few hand seals before crying out, "_Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu_ (Fire Release: Immortal Phoenix Fire Technique)!"

"Now!" Kasumi screamed, and all the Naruto shadow clones threw their shuriken and repeated as one, "_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!" The two attacks crossed paths, and from where he was falling, Hayato couldn't tell the shuriken from the fireballs. Especially when both suddenly multiplied, obviously where the shuriken had caught fire and were still flying.

"Shit," Hayato cursed himself for having the crazy idea of having another fight with these three, after he'd taught them real teamwork too! He concentrated fully on getting out of the way of all of the projectiles, ignoring the genin and shadow clones until he was safe enough that he didn't need every single one of his reflexes on high alert.

With an impressive display of acrobatics, _Kawarimi_ and speed, the jounin danced around the flaming projectiles, shuriken and just plain fireballs until they were all used up and he was able to stand on an upper tree branch without having to worry about being attacked in the next second. He took this extra second to catch his breath. This was going to be the last time he had all three of them fight him for a while. He wasn't getting any younger after all!

"_Kage Bunshin Nanseihokubatsu_!" he heard shouted from practically all around him.

"Gah! I thought I'd stopped him from using that stupid technique!" Hayato moaned, even as he was suddenly dodging flying shadow clones. It was a bit more difficult that at first, when he'd just thrown them and then they would try to tackle or headbut him. Now it would seem that since Naruto had gained a bit more skill in basic taijutsu, his clones were better able to grapple and fight close range than they had a week ago.

Thankfully, after about ten of the clones were thrown at him, each trying to breach his defenses with rapid punches, short kicks and submission holds, they stopped and he managed to dispel every last one of them. Until another ten leapt overhead and each created another two clones before shouting the name of that pathetic technique again.

This time though, it was very different. They were just a little bit faster, and he _missed_ hitting several of them on the first hit as they dodged and tried to attack him differently than before. This time with them focusing more on his legs than his upper body, it took him almost twice as long to dispel them. The remainder of shadow clones hung back for a second, until Hayato felt a somewhat distant chakra burst, which he interpreted as being the original Naruto creating more shadow clones.

Surprisingly, the clones around him seemed to sense it as well and took it as a signal to attack. Every last one of them threw their entire arsenal of shuriken, some even tossing in a few kunai for variety, one or two using the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin_ jutsu again. Hayato dodged by dropping to some of the lower branches of the tree he was on. Thankfully it was a really big tree and each branch could almost be a fighting platform by itself.

When the clones came in close, the almost didn't seem to care about how they hit, just so long as they hit something. They also were getting better at dodging, but not enough that he didn't still hit them. The last three of the original 'extra' clones glanced at each other and nodded together before charging in as close as they could to the jounin, dodging strikes to avoid being dispelled until they were practically right next to him.

"Heh, sorry about this sensei," the one that had slid in under the man's guard said with a wink.

Hayato paled as the last of the shadow clones blurred briefly before screaming, "_Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_!!" and a trio of point blank explosions each comparable to a _Jibaku Fuda_(Exploding Tag).

When the smoke cleared, there was nothing but soot and a few chunks taken out of the tree branch. The clone really shouldn't have said anything, as that comment was all the warning Hayato needed to get clear of the explosion. But still... Naruto was _dangerous_ with that technique!

Surprisingly, it did not take Ryu and Kasumi long to find their hidden sensei. Not even ten seconds after the smoke had cleared from the explosion than the two blurred from their hiding spots towards a single lump on the underside of the branch. Kasumi threw a trio of needles at it before multiplying them by ten. The lump melted away to reveal Hayato just as he dodged the surprisingly dangerous flying projectiles.

"Hope you didn't forget about us, sensei!" Ryu exclaimed as he threw a spread of kunai with _Jibaku Fuda_ attached. Hayato immediately deflected them, just in time too as they exploded only a few feet away from him.

He landed against the trunk of a tree, and used that spring off of and jumped up to where Ryu was still falling. "You kids are talking too much!" he warned the genin as he slammed a punch at the black-clad ninja's torso that would crack if not break several of his ribs!

Instead, while Hayato did here something that sounded suspiciously like a crack, Ryu didn't seem phased in the least by it and instead grabbed the older ninja's arm to trap him before maneuvering for a submission hold. Hayato suspected what was coming next and resisted the hold, lashing out with a punch to the face.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" Ryu, with a spiderweb crack on his cheek, said smiling. Then he butted his head against the jounin's face, grabbed the other arm to complete the submission hold, and started spinning them around and around until they were spiraling towards the earth, which unfortunately was one of the solid portions of the Swamp instead of water or mud.

"IZUNA OTOSHI!" Ryu cried as they were about to crash into the ground.

At the very last instant, Hayato bucked his whole body and managed to lever his leg against Ryu and pushed off against him with all his strength and a good portion of chakra too. Instead of crashing like a buried turnip, they skidded away from each other along the ground, and Hayato was on his feet and charging Ryu before the genin could fully get to his.

Losing patience, Hayato slammed another blow to the genin's torso, accidentally or not using his full strength as he did. So it was to his immense shock when instead of hearing another cracking sound, or watching the young man go flying off into a tree, he witnessed his hand go into and then through the boy's chest with bits of bits of earth going flying.

'_Wha... _Iwa Bunshin_...?!_' Hayato mentally exclaimed as the now revealed Earth Clone's appearance reverted to a stone statue that quickly began to crumble around his fist.

"Why, oh why, did I tell them to learn _different_ Bunshin jutsu?" Hayato asked himself, dusting off his hands and leaping back up into the trees before he was targeted once more.

"Now!" Kasumi cried out the moment Hayato touched down on one of the lower branches.

"Sonuva—!!" Hayato screamed as he was suddenly forced to dodge a trio of Kasumi's from one side, a trio of Ryu's from the other and another three Naruto's, two of which were throwing the third right at him!

"_Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_!" the kamikaze shadow clone screamed, right before blowing up in Hayato's face and forcing him on the defensive.

Unfortunately he had to remain on the defensive, even as Ryu and Kasumi plus clones moved in for close combat. A few quick blows were all that were needed to determine that all three Kasumi's were actually _Mizu Bunshin_ and all three Ryu's were _Iwa Bunshin_. Obviously, the two remaining Naruto's were Shadow Clones... at least he thought so until he finally landed a solid on one of them and it dissolved into water.

'_Oh SHIT!!_' Hayato focused his attention on the remaining Naruto clone, who'd jumped to the branch above them. Grinning down at the jounin, the Earth Clone of Naruto winked once, before forming a seal and stepping off the branch to fall down directly on top of them.

The other clones quickly moved in and sought only to subdue or delay Hayato's escape, nothing more.

"_Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_!" the Naruto Earth Clone screamed, right before he exploded in a shower of deadly flying shrapnel, and Hayato was still being held back by Ryu and Kasumi's clones!

(Pause "Team One Gets Stronger")

"Damnit, he got away again," Naruto grumbled. He was still on the branch of the tree near the platform, but Kasumi and Ryu had joined him while they all pelted their sensei with their various clones, buying time so they could figure out how to attain one of the listed goals of winning this test.

"He's a jounin, and we're not trying to kill him, no matter how lucky we are," Kasumi reminded him. "What did you expect? Although I do like the way you interpreted my words earlier, Naruto, we need to figure out how to win this. And clones, unfortunately, aren't going to win the day."

"No, instead we have to come up with a whole new technique for something that is supposed to be a myth," Ryu pointed out. "And while there's no time limit, I would like to still be done with training before six today, so we need to get cracking on that. Besides chakra control exercises, and elemental ninjutsus, what other kind of jutsu can be used in tandem?"

"Combo attacks, traps, _Fuuinjutsu _(Sealing Techniques), healing ninjutsu, advanced ninjutsu, maybe some sequence attacks," Kasumi listed.

"What are sequence attacks?" Naruto asked, keeping his eyes closed as he required a massive amount of concentration (for him) to keep track of Hayato's movements, while Kasumi and Ryu were able to do so naturally.

"Basically, when we, or others, attacking one after the other, and the last action of the one before leads to an opening for the next one to continue the sequence. But it would require precise timing and we haven't practiced or trained in anything like that. Besides, how would we use chakra merge in something like that?" she asked the question going through each of their minds.

"Probably something we would only figure out after a lot of practice," Ryu cursed. "We're running out of time, and clones. Naruto, we need a big distraction, best for you to send in the last of your clones for now."

Naruto nodded before opening his eyes, made the seal, then created a single clone, who bore a look of concentration then dispelled itself. Immediately, they all felt the hidden 100 clones that Naruto had first created moving to intercept Hayato from multiple vectors. While that was going on, they all started thinking up ways to use chakra merge in an actual combat-oriented mindset. So far, all they were really able to do with it was channel all their chakra into a single object, saturate it, and then allow their chakra to merge with one another.

Not very useful, as even if they channeled all that chakra into a kunai or a shuriken, it required all three of them to be touching it at the same time. Besides that, there was also the nagging little fact that Kasumi and Ryu were both running out of chakra after having made so many clones and used high level techniques already. Naruto, on the other hand, had hardly been involved in the fighting at all, besides creating a bunch of shadow clones, he'd also been just sitting to the side watching, meaning he was still fresh.

"Heh," Naruto laughed at himself.

"What?" Ryu asked, wondering what was so funny.

"Too bad I can't just give you guys my extra chakra, then you'd be refreshed and we could fight Hayato-sensei for real while he'd be exhausted," he joked.

Kasumi and Ryu both froze while Naruto laughed softly, until he noticed they weren't laughing, instead they both looked very excited all of a sudden. "What?" he asked, wondering what he'd said.

(Play "Team One Gets Stronger")

Hayato gasped in short pants as he landed heavily on the platform. He hated to admit it, but the last time he'd been this tired was on an A-Rank mission where he'd had to fight a jounin rank _Wind-user_ of all things while protecting the client and fending off the bastard's partners. Admittedly, at that time he'd had another two jounin and a squad of chuunin to help him out, but fighting genin was supposed to be easy!

But then again, when one of those genin is a prankster knucklehead with Kage-level chakra reserves and a liking for using Kage Bunshin and _Bunshin Daibakuha _together, even the _Sannin_ would be a little tired after facing a hundred of them!

He wasn't surprised to see his three genin there on the platform, waiting there for him, nor was he surprised to see that Ryu and Kasumi looked a bit haggard while Naruto was as fresh as ever. Of course wearing that guy out required a lot more than just a sparring match or two, and he'd been on the sidelines from the start. Still, if they were just standing there, not even throwing things at him with that damn weapons cloning technique then they were definitely up to something.

"So, are we taking a break?" he sarcastically asked them.

"No, we just wanted you to see how we're going to win this little test of yours," Ryu answered.

"After all, we wouldn't want you accusing us of lying about it after we're done," Kasumi added.

"Ready guys?" Naruto glanced at both his teammates, and they nodded back. He put his fist out in front of him, and they put their own on top of his so all three were touching each other.

Hayato, confused and annoyed by this seemingly childish act of team unity, was due for the shock of his life when he heard them cry out in one voice, "_Buntai no jutsu: Chakra Gattai _(Team Technique: Chakra Fusion)!" All three of them lit up with the soft blue glow of chakra then, and it seemed to be flowing towards their touching fists and... _into each other_!

"No... way..." Hayato's eyes went wide as he realized what they were doing. They were merging their chakra _inside each other's bodies_! That meant that the new energy created from the chakra merge would combine with their own chakra, basically revitalizing and refreshing their chakra reserves, possibly even super charging it for a short while! Which meant that he'd be facing off against three fresh genin that now had the experience of fighting him and his timing and everything, while he was tired and still fighting after a long battle already. A way of renewing their own chakra and stamina _without_ using the soldier pills and disguised as a way of just renewing their spirits with a brief ceremony of team unity.

If he wasn't so tired, Hayato would feel like bursting with pride and bragging to all the other jounin out there about how awesome his team was going to be after he was finished with them!

They only stood there for a few seconds, maybe no longer than nine or ten really before they felt like chakra was ready to explode out of their skin and they turned to face their tormentor of the past week. They didn't say a word, they just stood there, glaring at the man, Kasumi and Ryu both looking fully refreshed all of a sudden and Naruto almost jumping in place like a hyperactive kid getting a hold of the sugar jar.

"Just so we're sure about the rules here, Hayato-sensei," Kasumi mimicked his own sadistic grin, "care to repeat them for us, and what happens when we win this time?"

"If we manage to hit you with a combo that uses chakra merge," Naruto answered for him, "we get to start doing missions as of tomorrow, right?"

"And if we manage to actually knock you out with that combo, we get to name our prize, right?" said Ryu, also sporting a sadistic grin of his own.

"That's right," Hayato confirmed with more confidence than he actually had at that moment. Even genin get lucky more than once, he had to admit.

"Well then, let's give this our all, shall we?" Kasumi said to her teammates as they stood beside her.

"Let's do it!" Naruto declared as all three of them brought their hands up to form the cross-seal together.

"_KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU_!!" they cried and there was an explosion of white smoke that covered the area for only a few seconds. Once it cleared, Hayato couldn't stop himself from gulping in appreciation of what he faced. Genin or not, _nobody _could expect to face a veritable army by themselves and walk away unscathed.

To either side was a group of about 10 to 20 Ryu's and Kasumi's each, and behind them, filling half the platform, standing on the water, the trees, the lower branches, and the roots of the trees behind them was a countless number of Naruto's.

"I've gotten better," Naruto admitted with a slight blush.

"Huh," Ryu grunted, looking down at himself. "Y'know, the first time I did _Kage Bunshin_, I felt like I was weak as a kitten, and that was just splitting my chakra three ways. Now that I've got 13 clones here, I expected to feel even worse."

"Me too," Kasumi admitted, looking back and forth between herself and her twenty clones. "But I actually feel... normal. Like I'm at my regular level of chakra."

"You don't suppose...?" Ryu asked her.

"That the extra chakra we got from _Chakra Gattai_ went into the clones so that instead of splitting our chakra, we actually created clones that have the same full capacity that we do now. Which means it's a good thing we made the clones or all that excess chakra would have overloaded our coils and put us in the hospital – or the grave," Kasumi said a little white in the face as she realized what had almost happened.

Ryu looked with disgust at Naruto, and muttered at him, "You're an absolute chakra monster, you know that, Uzumaki?"

Naruto just laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head, saying, "Oopsie."

Ryu snorted. Kasumi then grinned, and innocently remarked, "It also means that instead of just two refreshed genin plus Naruto, Hayato-sensei is facing all our clones that have just as much chakra and stamina?"

"... shit..." Hayato cursed.

"GO!!" Naruto yelled like a general commanding his troops.

Like a living organism, the army of clones surged forward, moving to cut off Hayato's escape as quickly as possible. Seeing he had no choice, he jumped back onto the water and flashed through about twenty hand seals in a quarter of as many seconds.

"_Raiton: Raigeki no Yoroi _(Lightning Release: Lightning Armor)!" Hayato was instantly covered with arcs of chakra-generated electricity, but he wasn't finished as he completed another seal combination and put his hands in the water at his feet and pronounced, "_Raiton: Jibashi _(Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder)!" Waves of electricity came from his hands and obliterated anything touching or near the water, which basically meant all of Naruto's clones that weren't still on the platform or in the trees.

"_Katon: Ryūka no jutsu _(Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique)!" a trio of Ryu's shadow clones shouted before breathing out three flaming dragon constructs, all aimed right for the still-sparking Hayato.

"_Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu_!" another Ryu-clone from above in the branches shouted, shooting out multiple fireballs in a spread out pattern that highly limited Hayato's escape options.

"_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!" ALL of the Naruto clones in the trees declared, after throwing every single shuriken they had on them and creating a hail of flying metal death that made escape above absolutely impossible. So, Hayato canceled his lightning armor and dropped below the surface of the water... where he found ten Kasumi's waiting for him.

"_Suiton: Mizurappa _(Water Release: Violent Water Wave)!" all of them exclaimed as the water all around them reformed into violent torrents all aimed right at Hayato, who had little that he could do against it without injuring himself even worse than the water ninjutsu would.

It felt like getting hit by a charging bull, but the worst part was that they sent him flying up out of the water and higher into the air over the platform! Thankfully the fire techniques and most of the shuriken were gone, and what was left was in no danger of hitting him without being redirected in someway. Which is, of course, when he heard one final shout that made him wish he'd never started this damn test.

"_Buntai no jutsu: Taijutsu: Ikko Dageki _(Team Technique: Taijutsu: Team One Strike)!" Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu shouted even as their own clones threw them up into the air to attack their Jounin Sensei.

Kasumi got to him first, striking with flat palms to his legs and thighs. Half a beat after, Ryu was there with a twisting uppercut, and landed a chakra-infused fist against the jounin's chin, knocking him back enough that Naruto had room to land a few dozen punches with the rapid-punching technique, his fists also glowing with chakra. They finished with Kasumi flipping around mid-air to behind the stunned jounin and slamming a chakra filled kick to the small of his back, sending him flying to the ground where the remaining clones waited to finish the job.

(Stop "Team One Gets Stronger")

Five minutes later, Hayato sat them all down, all the clones dispelled, while nursing his bruises and other injuries from the fight. "If you tell anyone about this," he growled at them, "I will deny it ever having happened in the first place, understand?" He sighed, seeing that they each had a smug expression on their faces. "OK, yes, you passed. With flying colors. That last technique of yours actually knocked me out for a few seconds. And I am a man of my word. Starting tomorrow, we will begin D-Rank missions. And, because you did knock me out, each of you can name one thing, no matter what, and I'll give it to you. You also earned learning a new technique."

"YAY!!" the three genin cheered.

"Just give me about ten minutes here and I'll show you something that I've found extremely useful when in tight spots. While you're waiting, I'll go ahead and explain how it works, then we'll work on it later. And you might also want to start thinking on what it is you want from our bet. Because I'm not doing one thing for each of you, just for the team as a whole."

"Oh, we already know what we want!" Naruto exclaimed happily. Ryu and Kasumi were grinning and nodding their heads beside the hyperactive blond.

Hayato pale briefly and questioned, "OK, I'm not sure if I want to know this soon, but... what is it you want?"

"Well, besides the new technique you've said we just earned and you're about to teach us," Ryu began.

"We would like for you to teach us," Kasumi continued.

"All three of us," Naruto interrupted, and Kasumi smiled and nodded.

"For you to teach all three of us a new jutsu. The specifics on each jutsu can be different, as I would like to learn a new supplementary jutsu, but I'm sure both Naruto and Ryu want to learn attack jutsu. But all three of us were feeling the limitation of our jutsu repertoire in this... test today. We need to know more."

Hayato sighed and nodded his head. "OK, you've got a deal. I guess I'll be teaching you four new jutsu today. Just to be clear, I actually have a pretty good idea on what it is all three of you need to learn already. But besides Kasumi learning a helpful jutsu, what do you two want?"

"An attack jutsu!" Naruto immediately shouted out loud.

"A defense jutsu," Ryu countered just as quickly. When everyone looked at him in surprise, he answered, "I know lots of different ways to attack. Lots. But as this fight demonstrated just now, not so many on defense. That's what I need to work on."

Hayato agreed and stood up, "Very well then, let's get started!"

"HAI!" they all exclaimed.

TBC...


	3. First Mission

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by some Japanese company, both Manga and Anime and Movies. I don't own any of that. But seriously the primary owner is a guy by the name of Masashi Kishimoto. Still, it's a good verse to write in and the fanfiction is turning out to be a lot more entertaining than the canon. Also, "Moritake's" is drawn from S'Tarken's "Team 8" and is used as the sincerest form of flattery, but has also been used without written permission, so my apologies if it is offensive to anyone.

Summary: Team One is now ready to start taking D-Rank Missions! But will their first be their last?

Soundtrack:

"First Mission" - N*Sync's "Bye, Bye, Bye" from their _No Strings Attached_ album.

"Buntai No Jutsu" - Backstreet Boy's "Larger Than Life" from their _Millennium_ album.

"Team Missions" - Nickelback's "Learn The Hard Way" from their first album.

Story:

After the day before, Team One almost expected to have the day off. Needless to say, they were soon corrected on this very wrong assumption as their Jounin Sensei, Kanzaki Hayato had told them the evening before to meet him at their usual training grounds at 6AM as always. That did not really surprise them, as their sadistic teacher was just as tough on himself as he was on them, and after the beating they'd handed him, he needed the rest just as much as they did. Nevertheless, they made sure to be at Training Area 25 at 6AM on the dot. For once, Hayato was not there to meet them, and they were sitting waiting for over five minutes before losing patience.

"Wonder where he is?" Naruto asked quietly.

Kasumi shrugged and answered, "I would imagine he's somewhere nearby, silently observing us. Making sure we're on time despite needing a day off after the week we've just had."

"Think he's resentful of us beating him yesterday?" Ryu whispered.

"You didn't beat me, it was an examination of your skills so far," Hayato stated from just behind them.

"AAHHH!" the three genin screamed, jumping up in the air from surprise. "DON'T DO THAT!!"

He just smirked at them, and they saw he was suddenly on the other side of the platform. "Good you're here. We have some things to talk about. Starting with this team accepting missions today," he said to them.

He began giving the same lecture they'd heard at the academy about the missions that ninja can do and are expected to do. He also repeated what he'd already told them about the missions they were going to be doing, nothing too surprising or unexpected. What did surprise them was that he had them start in on their usual training exercises almost immediately, and told them that they were to start doing D-Rank missions today.

"When do we get to go on our missions anyway?" Naruto whined.

"Yeah, why'd he have us show up at six in the morning just for the same stuff we've done everyday this week? Why can't we go ahead and start doing missions right now?" Ryu grumbled.

"The Hokage Tower doesn't open for daily missions until 9AM," Kasumi reminded them of this fact that they'd clearly forgotten. "Besides, remember what Hayato-sensei told us about D-Rank missions."

"That they're chores nobody wants to do," Ryu sarcastically retorted.

"That they're training missions," Naruto answered straightforward. "Ways that we can learn to be better ninja beyond personal and team training. And chores that nobody wants to do," he added when he saw Ryu and Kasumi both staring at him.

"So, uh," Naruto spoke up after a minute of uncomfortable silence, directing the question to their Jounin Sensei, "what time are we heading to the Hokage Tower to pick up our mission for the day?"

"Missions," Hayato corrected, walking over to them.

"HUH?!" they exclaimed, almost losing their balance or impaling their hands on kunai.

"You will be doing an average of three to nine missions a day," he calmly told them. "One Team-required mission in the morning, and then individual-style missions in the afternoon, one or more for each of you. I will also brief you on what will happen during each of your missions. The first one, I spoke to the Hokage about and more or less reserved it, so to speak. We'll stop morning training about nine and head to the Hokage Tower. I'll normally help you out on these missions because it requires a jounin to supervise, but this first time you three will be on your own. Just so you can see how things go, so you'll understand what these missions are for. The afternoon missions will fall more into the category of what you call chores. Grocery shopping, babysitting, painting fences, mending equipment, cleaning a house, yard work, things like that."

"What will morning missions, after today, consist of?" Kasumi hesitated to ask.

"Catching lost pets, city maintenance, sewage detail, returning lost and found, and demolitions of abandoned buildings and other things like that," Hayato listed for them.

"S-s-sew-sewage detail?" Ryu stuttered and gulped.

"Yep," he nodded.

"And these briefings...?" Kasumi questioned.

"Mostly just reading the mission request, but usually I'll have something extra for you to do or to pay attention to while you're completing the mission. Sometimes it will be simple and obvious, other times it may be complicated and taxing, and still on one or two occasions it may even be something that is hidden and you have to find on your own. Everything is training, if you look at it from the right perspective," he explained.

"OK! That's enough of that, now for Revolutions with _Heavy_ _Misery_!" exclaimed Hayato after an hour. _Heavy Misery_ had taken the place of _Silent Misery_, and was a seven foot long steel pole that had chakra-resistant seals placed on it, forcing them to increase the amount and strength of the chakra they fed into it so that their chakra would merge and allow them to lighten the load enough for them to even step onto the water. It also weighed a couple tons, making the effort of walking on water with it all the more difficult.

"I hate him..." Naruto mumbled as they jumped up from their kunai Tips and over to the reinforced steel pole that had taken the place of the stone pillar the day before.

"Me too," Kasumi and Ryu both agreed.

After half an hour and ten full Revolutions with the stone pillar, he had them doing Reps, Naruto still on 'level two' while the others were still using leaves. Another hour later, it was nine o'clock and Hayato finally announced that training was done for now and quickly (as in full speed through the trees) lead them from the Swamp training grounds to the Hokage Tower to receive their first mission.

"ALL RIGHT!" Naruto exclaimed, enthused about taking his first mission. He wasn't the only one.

"About time," Ryu muttered, tapping his foot impatiently, though he was grinning too alongside Naruto.

Kasumi merely smiled politely beside her teammates, but it was equally clear that she was just as excited about this as they were. "Let's do our best, OK guys?" she said as encouragement, to which she received enthusiastic nods of agreement.

Finally, they arrived at the Hokage Tower, reported for duty at the main desk and was directed to the 'Missions Room', aka the office where the Hokage and specially chosen chuunin sat and organized, assigned, and briefed the various teams coming in on the missions that were available. Most teams, under the leadership and decision of the Jounin Sensei chose from either a list, or a board where various D-Rank requests were posted for daily assignment.

Team One saw a few of their former classmates, now with their own teams, hanging out while their Jounin Sensei's read through these lists, sometimes offering a decision to the genin on what they wanted to do. Hayato, however, walked straight past this and right up to the Hokage at the desk full of scrolls and other paperwork. Surprisingly, to the rookie genin anyway, their sensei from the Academy, Umino Iruka was right beside the Hokage, helping with the paperwork and team assignments.

"Oy! Iruka-sensei, I didn't know you'd be here! Why aren't you back at the Academy, huh Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked the chuunin.

Half the room sweat-dropped at the question, though perhaps it had more to do with the volume at which it had been broadcast, as Naruto didn't really understand the concept of an 'inside voice' at times like this. Iruka and the Hokage merely took it in stride, however.

"Well, given that graduation was just over a week ago, Naruto," Iruka calmly explained to his most troublesome student, "the Academy is closed for summer vacation, but I'm a ninja too, not just a teacher, so I do what I can to help. And it's nice to see my former students even after graduation like this too."

"Ah, OK, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto grinned, also happy to see the only teacher that had ever showed he cared one way or the other about Naruto.

"So, Hayato," the Hokage greeted Team One, once Iruka and Naruto's greetings were concluded, "I take it that you believe Team One is now ready for active duty? Has it really been one week?"

Hayato nodded once and said, "I checked their progress yesterday afternoon. They have in fact exceeded the expectations I previously had for them. I think a couple of them might be getting additional training, but I can't complain about that as it keeps things... interesting. Are we too late for the assignment I put in a request for?"

The Hokage chuckled, the genin all shivered, as that chuckle had been a little bit _too much_ like their sensei's sadistic laughter during Team Training. "As a matter of fact," the Hokage answered, pulling out a specific scroll, "she came in only a few minutes before you got here. Rather frightening how regular this mission comes up, isn't it?"

"In this case, I would like to request a special dispensation, Hokage-sama," Hayato briefly bowed.

"Oh?" the Hokage said, intrigued. Even Iruka raised an eyebrow at this seemingly sudden request.

"I believe that my genin are capable enough," Hayato stated, "to handle this mission on their own, with little more than the initial briefing as my guidance. Therefore, I would like special dispensation in this matter to allow my genin to perform this mission fully autonomous. If that is all right with you, Hokage-sama."

"Oh," the Hokage was laughing out loud now, and the genin of Team One weren't sure whether to be beaming with pride at their Jounin Sensei's words... or cowering in stark terror at the Hokage's sadistic laughter.

"Very well," the Hokage grinned, stamping the scroll and handing it to Hayato, "Your genin hereby have special dispensation for this mission alone. You may use the debriefing room down the hall."

"Uh, Hokage-sama...?" Iruka tried to protest, but Hayato was already leading his team away.

"Don't worry yourself, Iruka," Sarutobi Hiruzen patted the chuunin on the shoulder, "Hayato knows what he's doing. Besides, this is payback for everything that _gaki_ has put us and Konoha through for the past 12 years. It's only the Fire Lord's Wife's cat after all."

The two experienced ninja sat there with straight and sober expressions for about three seconds before bursting out in wild, unstoppable laughter.

Down the hall in the briefing room, Hayato pulled out the mission scroll and began to explain.

"The mission is D-Rank. Mission objective is to find and recover a missing pet. Why this pet is so important that ninja are hired to find it is quite simple," he told them. "It is the Fire Lord's Wife's pet cat, called _Tora_ and is a brown tiger cat with a bow on the right ear. Let me repeat that, it has a bow on the _right ear_. The mission statement is also quite clear; bring Tora back to the Hokage tower, _unharmed_ and hand him over to the Fire Lord's wife. Any questions?"

Naruto was about to raise his hand, but Kasumi just straight out asked, "Where was the cat last seen before being reported missing?"

"On the balcony of the apartment complex where the Fire Lord's family is staying while they're on vacation." When they stared at him, he added, "It is summertime after all."

"Where should we start looking?" Ryu asked.

"Kasumi seems to know the answer to that question," Hayato smiled at them. "Besides, that's the other thing I wanted to explain to you. This mission, even though it's your first, is different than normal. I asked for special dispensation, which quite simply means that where normally I would be escorting you all and participating in the mission alongside you, this mission you will be doing by yourselves. You're not even allowed to find me later on and ask my help. Don't worry, I'll be there with you for your next missions."

"Wonderful," Ryu and Kasumi muttered.

Naruto, having run out of patience to be noticed with raising his hand, finally just blurted out, "What exactly did you mean when you told us to bring back the cat unharmed, and repeating that it has a bow on it's right ear?"

Hayato chuckled sadistically and merely remarked, "You'll soon find out. Now, any more questions? No. Good. Head out Team One. You have until sunset to complete your mission!"

"Hai!" they all snapped to attention and then marched out of the briefing room and then the tower, moving quickly to track down the lost pet.

(Play "First Mission")

_Konoha Marketplace_

_One hour later_

"How many cats _are_ there in this village?!" Ryu exclaimed as they jumped over another side-alley between two restaurants where a surprising number of felines congregated.

"More than I ever suspected," Kasumi commented, sounding halfway between frustrated and amused.

"Roughly 100,000 and another hundred every three months, not counting those that are killed by predators or taken in as pets," Naruto dryly stated, like it was old news.

"How the heck do you even know that?" Ryu demanded.

Naruto gave his teammates a fox-like mischievous grin and slyly answered, "It was part of a prank that I played on Kiba about three years ago now. I bet him that there were more cats than dogs and that made cats cooler, or something like that. So, I went out and tricked every cat into following me to the Inuzuka Compound with catnip and Iruka yelled at me that I had drawn in over 90,000 cats to a dogs only area. The Hokage gave me ramen and told me that cats mate about three times a year and the pregnancies only last two months, and then another month before they can fend for themselves. At about two to five kittens per litter, for an uneven number of male and female felines in a wide area..." Naruto just shrugged.

Kasumi and Ryu shared a wide-eyed look, not sure what to say at this rather surprising side of their friend. Finally, Naruto broke the silence by asking, "So... how are we supposed to find this cat anyway?"

"Well," the kunoichi on the team admitted, "I had thought if we started with where the cat was last seen, we might find a clue, like the ribbon or some paw prints, or something that would allow us to track it. Instead, we've seemingly found every _other_ cat in Konoha other than the one we're looking for."

"Yeah, and none of us have any real tracking skills. Even I'll admit I'm a better fighter than a tracker," Ryu grumbled.

"Well... what if I create a bunch of shadow clones and send them out everywhere with orders to dispel themselves if they spot the cat so we know where to go?" Naruto suggested.

"Nah," Ryu rejected it out of hand. "Too much attention and no guarantee that the cat won't run away the moment after your clone goes pop. Then we'd be right back where we started. There has to be something!"

"Hm," Naruto scratched his head, sitting on the edge of the roof they were standing on as they had their conversation. "Well... it's the Fire Lady's cat, right?"

"Fire Lord's Wife's cat," Kasumi corrected automatically.

"Right, that," Naruto said. "Well, what do rich people feed their pets? Seriously, cause I don't know."

"Well, usually just cat food in this case. Since this _is_ the Fire Lord's wife we're talking about here, probably the most expensive, exclusive brand there is. Why?" Kasumi asked.

"Is there anywhere here in Konoha that you could find that stuff?" Naruto asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure that kind of stuff would be special order. What are you getting at Naruto?" Ryu questioned.

"What do cats like to eat?" Naruto asked them instead of answering.

"Fish and meat mostly," Kasumi replied. "Naruto..."

"I've got it!" he exclaimed suddenly, slamming his fist into his hand. "I know where to find the cat!"

"Huh? Where? _How_?!" Ryu exclaimed.

"C'mon, I'll show you!" the blond shouted, leaping off the roof in a far-reaching bound.

"What is he thinking?" Ryu asked of the chestnut-haired kunoichi next to him.

"I don't know, but I'm willing to find out," she said, right before taking a running leap to follow Naruto to wherever he's going.

"This had better be... what am I saying, this is _Naruto_ here!" he muttered to himself before following.

_Ichiraku Ramen Stand_

_A few minutes later_

"Un. Be. Leave. A. Bull." Ryu stated in complete disbelief.

"I noticed there are always a lot of strays around Old Man Ichiraku's place after he's done making his seafood ramen, which just so happens to be today's special," Naruto stated with pride. "There are always lots of bits of the fish and other stuff left over after he's done and that stuff is just thrown out. Anyway, ribbon on its ear, brown and black striped cat, right there."

"Absolutely. Unbelievable."

"Let it go, Ryu," Kasumi sighed. "Now that we know where the cat is, how should we go about catching it? If one of us stays and keeps track of it, the others can go get a cat carrier or something like that, I suppose."

"Do any of us know where we can _get_ a cat carrier or something like that?" Ryu then asked.

Silence.

"Right, thought so," the black-clad genin grunted. "Looks like we have to catch it the hard way. I mean, after all, it's only a cat. And we are ninja. Plus, it'll be like that last little torture training Hayato-sensei had us doing, with the rapid-punching, chakra strings, and fire and everything. Right?"

Naruto and Kasumi glanced at him, then at each other and then back at Ryu, just staring back at him.

"Right," he said more to convince himself than anything else.

"Well, just in case we do lose sight of it, we'll need some way of tracking it down again, rather than just hoping and going to a spot where there are lots of cats," Kasumi reasoned.

"Just memorize it's chakra signature," Naruto shrugged. "It's a cat, it can't exactly hide its presence the same way we can, right?"

"Care to identify Tora in there with all those cats for us then buddy?" Ryu chuckled.

Naruto just shrugged again, settled himself on the roof from which they were watching the back alley behind Ichiraku's Ramen, took seven deep breaths and let them out slowly. Then, with his eyes still closed, he pointed his finger over the edge of the roof at the cat with a ribbon on its ear, even following it as it moved around the other cats eating the fish leftovers.

Kasumi and Ryu stared in open-mouthed shock at their teammate, then at each other before settling themselves down and performing the same basic exercise to sense chakra that Ryu had shown them. To their immense surprise, Tora was easily identifiable. Apparently, and they could only guess as to who or why, somebody in the past had placed a chakra marker on Tora's body somewhere, sort of like an invisible seal that broadcast Tora's exact location at all times.

"OK, well, that makes things easier," Kasumi had to admit.

"So," Ryu asked with some trepidation, "chase and catch?"

"Unless we want to go find a cat carrier or something like it," she shrugged.

"I'll get it!" Naruto proclaimed, eagerly jumping down off the roof to the alley behind his favorite place in the whole village. Instantly the cats scattered, even the ones that normally would have ignored a human jumping down into their midst, but then this is the first human that smelled like a fox too.

Tora only saw the headband, not entirely ignoring the scent, but the Fire Lady's cat knew what it meant seeing humans wearing that headband chasing after it. The brown striped cat with a bow on its ear immediately took off at a full run out of the alley, Naruto in hot pursuit.

"Did he just...?" Kasumi stared.

"Yep," Ryu confirmed.

"So now we have to..." she said.

"Oh yeah," he nodded.

"_Mendoi_," they both quietly cursed before leaping up and tried to catch up with their impulsive friend.

Naruto, meanwhile was closing in on the cat, which was surprisingly fast for something less than a quarter of his size. When the cat tried to lose him by going into the crowds, he dropped down to all fours and ran even faster with more maneuverability and it lowered his center of gravity so he wasn't being blocked or knocked down by all of the people and instead knocking them down.

Tora, the cat, glanced back after running as far as was comfortable for it, only to see the orange blur that smelled like a fox with the all-too-familiar glint of a ninja headband coming after it like a predator from the jungle. The ribbon-eared feline immediately took off in a new direction, fitting into any tight and small spaces that it could in hopes of diverting or losing its pursuer.

Naruto, being the lovable idiot that he is, followed.

"I really hope we don't have to pay for those damages," Ryu mumbled as he and Kasumi kept to the rooftops, following Naruto more than the cat. "Otherwise, we're not going to get paid for this mission."

"If he keeps this up, _we_ might actually have to pay for this mission," said Kasumi, worried.

They followed Naruto and the cat for another block before she suddenly asked him, "Wait a second here, isn't this _our_ mission? So far we've got Naruto doing all the work, _again_! He figured out where to find the cat and now he's chasing it while we're chasing him? Where's our prodigy-worth teamwork all of a sudden?"

Ryu could have slapped himself, and immediately turned his attention from just following Naruto and the cat to their surroundings and trying to figure out ways of cornering the cat so that they could capture it. He saw several opportunities, depending on where and how the cat tried to hide from or lose Naruto.

"There," he said, pointing towards an open street that the cat and Naruto were, more or less, heading for. "I've been working on my earth-prison combo, using underground move and then _Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu_ (Inner Decapitation technique). If you have a way of getting it to stay still for just one second so I can position myself and grab it..."

Kasumi nodded. "Go, get ready. I'll catch up with Naruto and try and force the cat in that direction."

"On it," Ryu hardly even bothered with the seals as he suddenly blurred, a few stray leaves getting caught in his back draft as he used _Konoha Shunshin_ (Leaf Teleport) to move ahead to the open street. Kasumi doubled the chakra output to her legs and caught up with Naruto and the cat in just three more jumps.

Naruto was starting to get frustrated. The cat seemed to know every single tiny hole or cramped space there was in the village and was using that to try and get away from him. It slowed him down some, just enough to keep him from gaining, but he never lost sight of the cat for more than a single second at the most. It was also getting highly annoying having to crash through stuff and go around where the cat just went through.

He noticed Kasumi come up alongside him out of the corner of his eye, and smirked and tripled his speed just like that. He was kind of reminded of running Reps alongside her and Ryu and how they sometimes turned it into a race. But if Kasumi was showing up next to him instead of passing, that meant there was a plan and she was signaling him to back off when the time was right. And that meant Ryu was setting up a trap!

Naruto dove for the cat with an exaggerated motion meant to scare the cat than actually catch it. The terrified feline immediately leapt away with a burst of speed towards an open street. Kasumi leapt across the rooftops and Naruto knew that was the signal to back off, so he skidded to a halt right before he exited the alley the cat had jumped out of.

Tora stopped just as suddenly, sensing that the 'predator' had stopped short for some reason and that usually meant that something was wrong, or the cat had finally outmaneuvered him. It was confusing though, as this hunter had given chase even after many others that wore the accursed Leaf headband would have given up and come back later. So why was he suddenly just stopping?

There were no other humans on the street, no other predators, not even another wearing the headband, so why did he stop? Tora wondered. Then shrugged to itself and casually began to stroll down the street waving its tail like it was on parade or something. Naruto growled in frustration from the shadows at the sight.

Suddenly, Tora stopped, tail fully erect and ears pitched forward as its whole body tensed for no apparent reason. Naruto also tensed. If Ryu's trap failed, for whatever reason, Naruto would be ready to start the chase all over again.

At the last possible instant, the cat immediately jumped back, its paws stretched out wide, claws extended. At almost the exact same instant, Ryu's hand reached up through the ground, grabbing at the animal's legs, only to be met with immense pain instead as the cat slashed up the offending appendage.

Naruto was on the move before Tora had even made the first strike, but unfortunately he was not fast enough to prevent the cat from making mincemeat of Ryu's hand. Thankfully though, the cat was more interested in getting away from the 'orange predator' than it was in punishing the buried shinobi.

Kasumi jumped down from the roofs and helped Ryu extract himself from the ground. They both looked at the retreating dust cloud that was Naruto chasing the cat, and sighed. "I'm beginning to hate that animal," he muttered under his breath.

"You better be talking about that cat," she warned him threateningly.

"Yeah, the cat," he hastily agreed.

"Next plan?"

"What next plan?"

"..."

"Let's just go catch it then," Ryu hurried to his feet and in laying pursuit of Naruto and the feline.

Half an hour later, Team One proved the old saying "easier said than done" in spades. Naruto kept up hot pursuit of the cat, wrecking numerous stalls around the marketplace, finding more crawlspaces than he ever knew about in Konoha, and not letting the cat feel even a moment's peace. Meanwhile, Kasumi and Ryu tried several more traps, even working to corner the cat in a three-man squeeze with Naruto, but the cat always slipped by them or avoided the trap at the last second. Ryu even tried chasing the cat alongside Naruto for a time. The cat ran through an abandoned building, fleeing through tiny holes while Naruto slammed through walls, support beams and pipes like they were made out of cardboard, and Ryu was stuck in the rubble as the building fell down around them, only for the cat to slip out at the last second and for Naruto to use _Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_ to blast the falling debris apart and continue chasing the demon cat.

"That cat... is DEAD!" Ryu screamed and the next few times that he caught sight of the cat and whenever it was in range, he shot fireball after fireball after the feline.

Kasumi just tried to keep up for the most part after that.

Eventually the cat apparently got either tired of the city, or was getting desperate, as it high-tailed it away from the village towards the outer training grounds. Another _hour_ of chasing the cat through the woods taught the team of genin more about tracking, hunting and survival skills than a full course at the Academy ever had. All three of them could now easily identify the chakra marker that had been put on the cat, but that didn't make it any easier for them in getting to it.

At some point it entered a large bush of poison oak, and thankfully Kasumi and Ryu managed to stop Naruto before he charged in after the animal. Realizing that it wasn't going to come out any time soon, Kasumi had Naruto and Ryu make sounds and run through the trees as though they were running off past the bushes.

Meanwhile, Kasumi jumped high into a tree that was above and downwind of the bush the cat was still hiding in, judging by the chakra marker location. Naruto and Ryu stealthily joined her a few minutes later. Using hand signs that Hayato-sensei had taught them, Kasumi outlined her plan.

She would use the new jutsu Hayato-sensei had shown them just the night before to drive the cat from the bushes while Naruto and Ryu both would be waiting in ambush and catch the cat as it fled. They both agreed to the plan eagerly, planning on paying back the cat double for the scratches it had already inflicted upon both of them so far on this mission.

The jutsu was known as the _Sentou no jutsu_ (Pinnacle of the First Punch technique), a D-Rank supplementary ninjutsu that he taught them as means of improving their jutsu repertoire. It worked by channeling chakra to the arms and fists while forming the Dog Seal and then pushing out with their chakra while shifting to the Bird Seal, causing a small burst of force that, depending on how much chakra is used, can blow a leaf off a tree over ten meters away, or make a soda can explode from two feet away. Not exactly an attack mind you, most often meant to be used as a distraction to create a noise or rustle some bushes while hiding. That way it would either attract the attention of an enemy shinobi in the opposite direction from where you were, or in this case, drive out an animal that was hiding by making it think you were chasing it, making it run right into their waiting arms.

Once both Naruto and Ryu were in position, Kasumi took a slow, quiet breath and brought her left fist up and covered it with her right hand, channeling chakra through her arms to pool in her fists, creating a chakra charge. Once a sufficient amount of chakra had been gathered for her needs, she shifted her fists to where her pinky and ring fingers were extended with the tips touching, her pointer and middle fingers curled down so her knuckles were flush against each other while her thumbs extended back towards her chest. Focusing, she 'shot' the invisible chakra out into the edge of the bush and then had it 'burst' creating a small cracking sound from the sudden rush of air and chakra, rattling the bushes.

Knowing that would be enough, keeping her hands in the Bird Seal, she shot out another three 'charges' and exploded them the same, but moving closer and closer into the center of the bush. Before the third crack had even finished echoing amongst the trees, the Fire Lord's Wife's cat came tearing out of the bush and into the waiting arms of Naruto and Ryu. Hence the next lesson was learned as they both found out that an animal scared from loud noises was worse than one scared from being chased and gained the scars to prove it. Naruto only waited ten or so seconds for his scratches to stop bleeding before resuming the chase.

Tora climbed trees, crawled through bushes, jumped over burrows and overall continued to demonstrate how cats natural habitat will always be the forest. The three genin that continued the chase no matter what, on the other hand, demonstrated their training in endurance, chakra control and speed. Tora, despite the extreme chase it had led them on, was first and foremost a house cat that liked to run around for a while before going home to a bowl of premium cat food, water, and a fresh litter box. Normally, the ninjas assigned to catch the cat would give up and pull back after a while, sometimes catching the cat when its guard was down after a short chase to get the cat to the right area with a specific trap to catch and safely subdue the animal. Unfortunately for Tora, this was Team One's first mission and they didn't know that.

"_Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu_!" a shout came, followed by numerous small fireballs flying through the trees to the bush the exhausted cat was hiding under. The bush, of course, immediately set on fire, and the cat was running again before it could even catch its breath.

"_Suiton: Suishōha _(Water Release: Water Shockwave)!" Kasumi cried, using the moisture from the surrounding air to smother the flames so as not to start a forest fire. That the sudden wave of water scared the cat even more than the fire was just a bonus as far as the kunoichi cared.

"Where the heck do you guys learn those jutsu from?" Naruto yelled back. He was directly over the target's position, leaping through the trees with ease, and all of them were capable of keeping track of it too.

"I read a lot," Kasumi flushed red with embarrassment.

"I have lots of uncles that have nothing better to do than put me through hell teaching me their 'old moves' and crap," Ryu added. "Also, that Suiton jutsu was way weak, Kasumi-hime."

"Hey!" Naruto protested.

"No, he's right Naruto," she called to forestall the fight. "Like I said, I read a lot, and my older brother is a water jutsu master, among many other things. I sometimes sneak out a few of his old scrolls, read them, and practice what I've learned from them where I can. I don't have a lot of chakra either, and most of my technique is self-taught, so Ryu is right. My jutsu was weak because I haven't been properly trained in how to use it."

Naruto didn't know what to say to that, so instead he turned his frustration over that towards further motivating him in catching the damned cat!

"That cat is MINE!" he screamed, doubling the chakra output to his legs and reversing it from 'tree-climbing' to 'jumping', but he angled his body to where the cat was running to. A flash of motion and violence later, Naruto's flying body slammed full-contact into the smaller feline form, both rolling uncontrollably through the brush by the extra momentum and force Naruto's chakra-enhanced jump provided.

Kasumi and Ryu almost breathed a sigh of relief, until they all of a sudden realized exactly where they were and what was just on the other side of the bushes Naruto and Tora had just rolled through. They were right next to the main river bed, and there was a sheer vine-covered cliff that dropped suddenly and without any warning down into the water.

"NARUTO!!" Kasumi screamed.

"No wait!" Ryu grabbed Kasumi before she stupidly tried to follow their teammate over the edge.

"Let me go!!" she screamed, suddenly frantic.

"There's a safer way, _and_ he's a ninja!" Ryu reminded her. "We can help best by not losing our focus! Pay attention! Listen!"

They both stopped talking, and it was now that they could hear the river below, which should have been an even greater clue as to where they were, but also... there was no screaming. Nor any cries for help, and come to think of it, that chakra marker than had been tagged on Tora the cat was still nearby. Only about twenty meters straight down from their position in the trees in fact...

Kasumi's eyes widened in realization, remembering that this particular cliff, she'd once seen it from a beach shore on the opposite side of the river, and it was covered in hanging vines and roots and other plant life. Naruto must have caught onto one of those vines and still be hanging onto the cat so they could find him. Of course, Ryu came to the same basic conclusion, though he was also willing to entertain the possibility that only the cat was hanging onto the vines and Naruto had fallen from the cliff down into the river below. He didn't say anything though.

Over the side of the cliff, Naruto actually _had_ grabbed one of the hanging vines as he and the cat had gone over the edge, and with his other hand had grabbed onto the only thing he could to keep the cat from falling to its death; it's tail.

"I hate you so freaking much right now," Naruto hissed down at the brown-furred feline.

To make matters more difficult for the pair, the cliff wasn't just a sheer drop, the soil held up by the plant life actually dropped back so it was more of a hanging cliff and the only thing for about six feet in the direction of the cliff was more plants, the earthen wall, which was solid enough for Naruto to walk on like with trees, was _just_ outside of his reach so that the only thing that kept him from falling into the river was the vine he was holding precariously to with his right hand.

Looking around at his predicament he came to a very quick decision.

He was screwed.

"I'm screwed," he said to himself.

Looking down at the yowling cat he had by the tail, he smirked and added, "Or should I say _we're_ screwed. Oi! Stop struggling already, unless you want me to drop you in the drink and then we can fish you out of the river later!" He shook the target just for good measure. And maybe for a bit of payback.

Showing that cats have at least some basic intelligence, Tora immediately stopped struggling and just hung there for the moment. Naruto, satisfied with this, pulled the cat up until they were eye-to-eye, more or less.

"All rightey then," he said with an uncharacteristic smirk on his face, "Here's the deal. You scratch me up, I let go of the vine, we both fall into the river." The cat looked back and forth between Naruto and the river below a couple times, then just 'stared' at the ninja. "I let you climb up on me and you still scratch me, you _might_ be able to get your claws into the vines and save yourself while I fall into the river. BUT, my teammates up there, will then focus their efforts on saving me more than you and you'll be stuck here under this cliff for who knows how many days before another team comes along to retrieve you again. I fail my first mission, but at least I take you down with me."

The 'stare' was now more of a 'glare' but the cat wasn't clawing his face off so it was progress.

"Final option," he stated, "you stay on my back while I climb the both of us out of this mess, and when we get back on the ground, you _do NOT_ run off again and let us return you to your owner. Deal?"

Naruto wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline, his exhaustion, something in the plants, the Kyuubi in his gut or all of them together, but he could've sworn that he saw the cat actually thinking it over before _nodding_ at him! Regardless, he shifted the cat around so that it could cling to the back of his flak-jacket with its claws and he could use both hands once more.

"OK, I'm going to start swinging here, get us some momentum that will get us out from under this cliff where I can get to the walls and climb up. Remember, no clawing, biting or anything else, or we'll both fall," he warned the cat.

Slowly, methodically, and all to aware that the vine he was holding could start to give way at any time now, he began shifting his weight and started to swing back and forth. There was a brief scare when the vine gave way by a few feet, but it either held or was caught on something else as that was all he dropped and it also added force to his swing and gave him _just_ enough reach that he was less than a foot from the cliff wall so that on his next swing he let go and was propelled just enough that his feet and hands caught the dirt and stone of the sheer cliff and he used his chakra to arrest any further downward motion.

"Whew," Naruto sighed in relief as he began to slowly climb his way up the cliff side.

"Meow!" Tora agreed.

"NARUTO!" Kasumi shouted from the top of the cliff.

"NARUTO!" Ryu called, already coming down the side with chakra around his feet and ninja-wire in his hand for further stability. "Gotcha bro! Here we go!" Ryu came to Naruto's side and helped the younger genin stabilize his footing and helped him bring the blond and his burden back up to the top of the cliff. Once they were all safely on the ground once again, Tora leapt off of Naruto's back and into Kasumi's arm and curled up to go to sleep. It had been a busy day for the Fire Lord's wife's cat, and it was tired.

"I really hate that cat," Naruto growled from where he lay panting on the ground, more from the adrenaline rush than any amount of exhaustion.

"Ditto," Ryu wholeheartedly agreed.

"Let's just return Tora here and go back to hellish training then," Kasumi suggested, overwhelmed with relief that Naruto was OK. Ryu, laughing, agreed to that too, and Naruto couldn't help laughing as well.

(Stop "First Mission")

_Hokage Tower_

_Half Hour Later_

"Oh my BABY!" the surprisingly _large_ woman screamed as soon as Team One came in with the cat. The feline almost made a break for it, but Naruto's, Ryu's, _and_ Kasumi's iron hold on the back of it's fur prevented that as the Fire Lord's wife grabbed the devil animal and proceeded to slowly torture and kill it by smothering it against her... self.

After the Fire Lord's wife and her cat departed, Hayato stepped out of a side room and stood beside the genin as they gave their report on how their first mission went. After they were done, the Hokage nodded and lit up his pipe with a minor fire jutsu. Iruka beside him looked upon his former students with surprise and grudging respect. Mostly due to the fact that they'd managed to find _and_ retrieve the target and brought it back, thereby completing the mission within two hours of receiving it. It wasn't the fastest time, but then again the fastest team had the benefit of having their Jounin Sensei to help complete the mission. Added to the fact that it was their _first mission_ and it raised a few eyebrows.

"So," the Hokage blew out a ring of smoke, "what have you learned from this?"

Confused, the genin looked at each other first, then back to the Hokage as Ryu answered, "It was a mission. We accomplished the mission. That was all."

"Spoken like Hayabusa Shinron," the Hokage laughed. "Except he answers the question anyway."

Ryu gulped, and Kasumi tried her hand.

"We learned the target's general habits and way of evading capture, something that I'm sure will aid us in our future encounters," she reported.

"Hm, better, but not all of it I'm sure," the old man was looking expectantly at all of them now.

"Yeah, catch the damn thing before it runs!" Naruto exclaimed out loud. "I almost had it like a dozen times, but it's slippery! I probably should have worked with Ryu and Kasumi when we had it cornered behind Ichiraku's Ramen stand, when it had its guard down and in a confined space, we could have blocked off all its possible exits and gotten it within the first ten minutes!"

The Hokage smiled and nodded approvingly, while Kasumi and Ryu's eyes went wide with a 'Duh! I should have known that!' look on their faces.

"Yes, that's it exactly, Naruto," the Hokage explained to them. "We do not put you in teams so that each of you can learn each others jutsu and become stronger. We put you in teams so that you will _all_ become stronger and work better _as_ a team on missions. The last mission of the day, you will do with your sensei. It will also give each of you time to reflect on this lesson and prepare in learning the next. Filing paperwork."

The genin weren't sure which was worse, the sadistically gleeful expression on the Hokage's face, or the way Hayato struggled to keep from laughing throughout the whole thing. "Oh, and Naruto, if you wouldn't mind hanging around after you're done with your missions for today, I'd like to teach you a new jutsu..."

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

"Not bad on your first mission yesterday," Hayato said out loud to his team of genin. They'd been doing Reps and Tips with clones while the real ones were doing Revolutions around the platform for over an hour now. "I'll be joining you in a supervisor capacity for today's mission. Along with Naruto's clones it should make things easier for you. I thought we'd lost you for a while there, Ryu, on that second mission there!"

"Har... de... har... har..." Ryu grunted from where he, Kasumi and Naruto were lugging a heavy metal pole across the surface of the water. Thankfully, as had become customary when they started training in the morning, they'd used _Chakra Gattai_ (aka chakra fusion) so that Ryu and Kasumi and even Naruto had more than enough chakra to handle all the exercises plus making extra shadow clones.

"Oh, lighten up," Hayato chuckled at them as he kept pace, walking on the platform as they walked across the water next to him. "It wasn't so bad. And I was there to help you when things got tough there."

"You mean when the Old Man started cackling and we had a line of over twenty chuunin coming in with stacks of paperwork from their waists to their chins?!" Naruto screamed at him, the blond's chakra flaring and forcing his teammates to do the same so they were not unbalanced.

"Well, when you three become chuunin, sooner or later, _everyone_ does their stint in the Hokage tower as paper-pushers. Usually after a high rank mission or if you're on the disability list because of an injury that takes longer than normal to heal, but it is an inevitable placement for all ninja. It's a rare treat for the usual staff to hire out a D-rank to get genin to take care of the easy stuff."

"EASY STUFF!!" all three genin shouted, almost chucking the steel pole they were carrying at him.

"Actually... yeah, easy stuff," Hayato nodded at them, quite serious. They paled as the implications hit home in each of their minds.

"But still, I didn't think you'd actually pass out after the third hour, Ryu," Hayato chuckled.

Naruto and Kasumi couldn't help snickering themselves, recalling how at every hour on the hour more paperwork arrived for them to file and put away. The first hour it had just been two secretaries with a handful of folders, the second hour had been six chuunin with armfuls of thick folders and loose papers, and it was on the third hour that the 13 chuunin with stacks of paper from waist to chin, no joke, came in and all four of Team One were close to pulling their hair out at that point.

Halfway through the third hour, Ryu began to deteriorate and was looking close to panicking. Ten minutes before the next set of papers were _scheduled_ to arrive, the chuunin began to line up outside and delivering stacks of paper the same size as the last hour... but they just kept coming and coming and some of the chuunin were even coming back again and again with more stacks of paper. Ryu had fainted outright five minutes into it, and if it hadn't been for Naruto's clones and even using _Chakra Gattai_ so Kasumi and Ryu could make shadow clones, they would _still_ be filing paperwork!

"After you're done with this last Revolution, I want you three to start working on your combination techniques," Hayato told them as they made another circuit around the platform.

"Combination... techniques?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, you've already used them, though you may not have realized it at the time," Hayato explained.

"Like our _Buntai no jutsu: Taijutsu: Ikko Dageki _(Team Technique: Taijutsu: Team One Strike)?" Kasumi asked.

Hayato chuckled, but nodded. "Yeah, that would be a good, if amateurish example. It's when all three of you, together or individually, not only cover each other, but combine your efforts and sometimes even your chakra to create a more powerful technique than what you would normally be able to perform. Most just call them _combos_ and use them by instinct, as you guys did. Practice combos enough, and they not only become second nature, but they can become more powerful and evolve."

"Evolve?" Ryu repeated, intrigued.

"That's what you'll be working on next," Hayato told them. "By the way," Hayato stated, no longer making fun, "while it is most impressive that the three of you have created an actual, workable technique using that rather unique talent of yours. Supercharging your chakra to perform jounin-level techniques and recharging your own used up reserves is most definitely a valuable tool for a ninja, so try incorporating that in some way to your combos."

"I've got something that I need to check on, will take me a while," he said after they'd put down the heavy steel pole and were resting on the platform. "I'll bring lunch back, and then we'll go on to the Hokage Tower for our next mission. Let me just give you one last little hint here; the key to making combo jutsu work is all in the timing." Having said that, Hayato immediately flashed away using _shunshin_, leaving three very confused genin and all their clones.

"Are you guys starting to get the feeling that he does that on purpose?" Kasumi asked the boys.

"Does what?" Naruto grunted, stretching out the kinks in his arms.

"Telling us to accomplish nigh-impossible tasks on our own after ordering us to do the most hellish training anyone could ever possibly imagine, and then up and leaving like he expects us to do it!" she elaborated.

"We _do_ do it," Naruto pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's very annoying," she remarked.

"Well, you'll get no argument from me," Ryu tiredly agreed. "Doesn't change the fact that we have to do something to improve it, as all we've got now is a signal to go all out."

"Didn't Hayato-sensei say something about time?" Naruto asked.

"Timing," Kasumi correct, her eyes calculating and thoughtful. "He meant that we have to be perfectly in sync with one another, so that each action is in support of something one of us does. And I don't have the faintest idea on how to start training for that."

"Well, it seemed to work pretty well when we used it on a spur of the moment that first day," Ryu observed. "Why don't we trust in that?"

Kasumi gave him a look. He shrugged back, not understanding the problem with what he'd said.

"OK, fine, I'll show you," Kasumi growled at him, frustrated. "Naruto, let's both attack Ryu!"

"OK!" Naruto grinned and dove at his male teammate.

"Wait, what?!" Ryu scrambled to his feet and dodged the orange blur attacking him.

It got worse when Kasumi came in behind him and started attacking with high kicks and low sweeps, Naruto just coming at him with the Academy basics. Ryu, still struggling to understand, just dodged, not even trying to fight back. He ducked one kick and back flipped away from a sweep then turned aside Naruto's charge and subsequent punches and kicks.

"Let's attack him together!" Kasumi shouted, almost right in Ryu's face as she said it.

Ryu then observed as Naruto glanced at Kasumi and she likewise checked on her 'partner's' position. Only then did they attack, and even then, Naruto corrected himself midstep. It was only because of these subtle hesitations, not visible to most, but clear cut to a ninja, that Ryu was able to successfully dodge the next on-the-fly combo that Kasumi directed Naruto into performing.

After that, she held up her hand to hold back Naruto, and gave Ryu another look. "Now do you see what I mean?" she asked him, point blank.

He reluctantly nodded with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, I saw," he grumbled. "So, timing?"

"And communication and better learning each other's styles. It would help if Naruto actually had a style besides the basics," Kasumi pointed out.

"Hey!" Naruto screamed, then his face scrunched up in confusion. "Huh? Wait, what? I thought we were sparring. What's going on?"

Ryu rolled his eyes and sighed again. Kasumi giggled at Ryu's expression and turned to explain.

"There are little signs, hesitations, things that only ninja really notice in a fight, Naruto," she began. "Things that tell what it is we're going to be doing in a fight. Like when you throw a punch, or when I prepare to make a kick, and when we try and work together for a combo, like what we just did against Ryu, those signs are even more obvious because you were taking your cues from me. That showed Ryu what it is we were going to do and allowed him to dodge."

"Oh," Naruto indicated that he understood. "So... I'm not supposed to follow your lead?"

"Actually," Ryu interjected, "I think what Kasumi-hime is getting at, is that for _Ikko Dageki_ to work, all three of use need to act without anybody leading, we just do it automatically without even having to see where the other two are, we just know. And she's right. There's not any kind of training I know that will let us work on it. At least not to the degree we'd need to make it a real attack."

"Well, what about Revolutions?" Naruto grunted, waving his hand at the pole. "That has us working in sync, both with our chakra and physically!"

"Yeah, but that's manual labor, physical training," Ryu argued back.

"And even now, it takes us a few seconds to get in tune with one another," Kasumi pointed out.

"So?" Naruto shrugged. "We'll just have to try harder. Or maybe not. During the fight with Hayato-sensei, I wasn't really _trying_ to do any kind of combos or anything with you guys, I just went with my gut and followed my instincts and things just... worked out."

Kasumi blinked, surprised. Ryu was also surprised, but thoughtful too.

"Y'know, I've heard some of my Uncles talking about how they were with certain people, how they just were naturally in sync with them, even if they'd only just met. Then, when they had to fight together, it was like they'd been fighting together for ages. Maybe that's what happened to us?"

"It's certainly what made Hayato-sensei pass us," Kasumi agreed.

"So how do we work on improving it?" Ryu asked.

"Don't think about it," Naruto grinned. "Just let go and go with the flow."

"Then again, our goals were the same that day," Kasumi pointed out. "Beat Hayato. Become genin. We probably couldn't do that thing on any kind of whim?"

"Why don't we find out?" Ryu offered.

"How do you propose we do that?"

"I'm not suggesting we fight Hayato-sensei again, but maybe if we alter the goal?"

"To what?"

"Well, what about demolition?"

"Demolition of what?"

"I don't know! Maybe we can ask for a mission of tearing down some old housing! You're the brains of this team, Hime! You figure it out!"

"Sorry, sorry, I'm just... struggling to figure out what we have to do here."

"I'm going to let you guys work this out on your own," Naruto tiptoed away. They didn't even notice.

While Ryu and Kasumi were still arguing over ways they could improve their teamwork even further, Hayato returned, bringing a sack of equipment and a bunch of bentos for lunch. He took one look at the arguing pair and then at Naruto, running Reps on his own with a number of clones. He sighed and set down the equipment bag and the lunches.

"Naruto," Hayato called him over, "While those two are like that, I'd like to show you something."

"Really? Cool! What is it?" the blond enthusiastically bounced over.

Hayato grinned a bit, then pulled out a single shuriken. Once he was sure Naruto was watching, he held it out so that it was hovering a few inches above his open palm.

"I'm sure you're very familiar with this particular exercise by now. I just thought I'd show you a new twist to it, something that will help you gain better control and potentially help you become even more powerful. Here," he said. The shuriken in his palm then began to, slowly at first, rotate in a clockwise motion.

"Huh? Whoa!" Naruto stared as the slowly rotating shuriken suddenly sped up and it was spinning as fast it would if it were thrown, except that it was stationary in the man's hand. "How'd you do that?"

"That," Hayato grinned again, but with his usual touch of sadism, "I am going to let you figure out. It's really not that hard to do, but being able to do it consistently is actually much harder than you might think. While those two are working on their thing, I'd like you to work on this. Use as many shadow clones as you feel like. Because starting tomorrow, when doing Reps, I want you to be able to do this with the shuriken you carry in your palms. Also," he pauses as the shuriken in his hand suddenly stopped and began rotating in the opposite direction, "see if you can't figure out how to make it spin in alternating directions. Make it spin one way one second and the opposite the next."

Naruto blanched at the seemingly monumental task, but he quickly resolved himself and pulled out one of his own shuriken and immediately began levitating it, where unfortunately it remained completely stationary.

"I'll leave you to it then," Hayato grinned one final time and then stepped away.

"All right, what seems to be the problem here?" Hayato mockingly inquired as he walked up to the arguing pair of genin.

The jumped, having been too involved with their own argument to notice his return. They both began speaking at once, not really shouting, just speaking their opinions. He held up his hand with an annoyed look on his face. Then he pointed at Kasumi.

"We've been trying to figure out exactly how we can train in combo jutsu. Neither one of us has ever been asked to train in timing and subtle communication or even..." he stopped her mid-sentence and turned to Ryu expectantly.

"I tried making a few suggestions, after agreeing with her, but she kept shooting me down," he said.

"That's because...!" Kasumi started to argue, but Hayato stopped her.

"This is where the Jounin Sensei comes into play," Hayato informed them. "I'll come up with something for tomorrow. For now though, you both need some time to cool off. And it's past time you yourselves were upgraded to level two of Reps. The metal plates for Ryu are in the same bag as Naruto's. I have to go and retrieve the more... unique ones for Kasumi while you're doing that. Oh, and instead of a shuriken Ryu, I want you to levitate a pair of kunai in your palms. Kasumi, you will be using a pair of your senbon needles. I suggest you practice doing that while I get the mesh wiring that will be taking the place of all those leaves. I'll be back in twenty minutes." He then flashed away in a swirl of leaves.

"He's serious," Ryu moaned.

Kasumi did not answer, instead pulling out a pair of foot-long needles and began to practice levitating them in the palm of her hands. Due to the smaller surface area, she knew it would be infinitely harder to do this than the leaf exercise had been. Ryu also realized he had no time to waste and went to get his own equipment.

_Hayabusa Clan Compound_

_Later that afternoon_

"GAAAHHHH!" Naruto cried out in relief as he stretched out tired and cramped muscles. "Who knew painting fences could be such strenuous work? Even with all our clones, it took us over an hour!"

"I know," Kasumi muttered, sounding distracted, biting her thumb absentmindedly. After their mission and receiving payment, Hayato had told them they were done for the day and let them go home. He hadn't asked about their combination training, but it was still on Kasumi's mind quite a bit.

"Yeah, but Hayato-sensei was right about what it can teach us," Ryu grumbled. "Coordination in preparing defenses, while exercising certain taijutsu techniques, and then the trick you managed to pull off with those chakra strings of yours!"

Naruto blushed slightly, waving off the praise with a hand. "Aw, it wasn't that hard. Actually, it's a LOT easier than that exercise Hayato-sensei has us doing with the fire and rapid punching. There was just so much of it that all my muscles hurt!"

"True," Kasumi agreed, then asked, "But using chakra strings to pick up multiple paint brushes at once and painting with them is an impressive development. So, we heading back to my place tonight?"

"Let's head over to my place instead," Ryu suggested. "Our bet over whose house we go to was up last week anyway, and I want to introduce you to some of my uncles, Naruto!"

"Your uncles that like to teach you everything that you know," Kasumi dryly remarked.

"Yeah, them," Ryu grinned.

"Your uncles that you complain about putting you through hell on a daily basis?" she continued.

"Yeah. Them," Ryu's grin lost some of it's humor.

"Your uncles that just so happen to make up 30 percent of the village bars patronage on a day-to-day basis? Your uncles that talk about the 'old days' and tell funny war stories all the time? Your uncles that always talk to me about my brother and ask how he's doing?"

"Yes," the teen growled, "Them. Well," he faltered, "not all of them. One in particular actually."

"Oh, who?" she inquired. Ryu grinned and whispered the answer in her ear.

"Kasumi-chan?" Naruto asked, worried.

She glanced at Ryu, who shrugged, then smiled and nodded and she nodded back. "Oh, all right. Besides, it's been a few weeks since I last visited the Hayabusa compound. I'm looking forward to it."

"Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this?" Ryu groaned out loud.

A few minutes walk later, they genin came upon the Hayabusa Clan Compound. Ryu showed them the baths so they could all clean up from their 'missions' and then proceeded to give the both of them the grand tour. Five minutes into their tour, they'd met Ryu's father, six of his uncles, each in a different room, three of his aunts, his mother and two sisters, and two of his cousins, each from his father's and mother's sides respectively.

"You have a lot of family," Naruto mumbled as they stepped outside to the Hayabusa Clan training grounds, aka their backyard, which went on for about six acres.

"You haven't even met half of them yet," Kasumi laughed.

Naruto's eyes practically bugged out of his head. "Seriously?!"

"Seriously," Ryu nodded his head, sounding less than enthusiastic about the fact. "C'mon, I've got some time before my uncles start to realize that I'm home early for once and start dragging me off for 'clan training' and if I get caught, I'm taking you down with me." Only Kasumi appeared to view this as a threat, Naruto on the other hand wasn't sure what to think.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked as they stepped into the small forest ten feet into the backyard. They weren't the giant trees that surrounded Konoha on all sides, but the more normal pine, oak and sakura trees that only reached 10-30 feet in height instead of several hundred. Twenty feet into the trees, they came to a clearing that lead up to a small hill, at the top of which was a small dojo with a man sitting in front of it, cooking something on an open fire.

Ryu mostly ignored Naruto's question until they got to the top of the hill and waved his blond friend forward. "Naruto, allow me to introduce my second-oldest uncle on my father's side, Gouken. Gouken-sensei, my teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. You already know Kasumi-hime."

The grizzled looking man, dressed only in a worn brown gi with a black belt looked up, then angrily threw one of the, thankfully not-burning, logs of firewood at Ryu's head. It hit and knocked the genin clear off his feet, stunning him. It stunned Kasumi and Naruto too, but for different reasons.

"OW!" Ryu was back on his feet inside a minute, "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR, YOU CRAZY OLD COOT!!"

"Mind your manners, Ryu-gaki," Gouken had resumed cooking his meal and spoke calmly, like some kind of sage hermit. "The Tenshins have always been an ally of the Hayabusas, and Kasumi-chan has always shown great respect for her elders. UNLIKE YOU, YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!" This time he threw one of the burning logs. A quick fireball jutsu had it quickly reduced to ash, but it had been a close thing for Ryu.

Rather than respond and possibly dig himself even deeper, Ryu bit his tongue and stepped closer and made extra sure to keep his tone respectful as he said, "Gouken-sensei, Kasumi is on my team. She really doesn't mind! Teasing her about the fact that she's known me and my family pretty much since the cradle and may even know some of my relatives better than she knows some of her own is implied."

"Hmph," the old man grunted. His skin as dark as Ryu's, neck-length dark brown almost black hair, and a grizzled beard covered his face. He had sky-blue eyes, almost white in the right light, and his frame was nothing but solid muscle, which was impressive on his six-foot-plus frame. He was barefoot and had weighted wristbands and elbow pads on his arms. The teens could see his Konoha headband and jounin vest stowed away with some other gear just inside the dojo, the doors of which were open to let in the summer breeze.

"Also, I wanted Naruto to meet you," Ryu finally said after a brief uncomfortable silence.

At this, Gouken looked up then glanced at Naruto. His eyes went up and down the smaller boy's body just once, then he snorted and said out loud, "No."

"Huh?" Naruto was very confused.

"Why not?" Ryu shouted, and Kasumi also looked annoyed at the flat refusal.

"He's too old, and probably too damn set in that Academy Basic crap that is better off taught as a self-defense course for civilians!" the older ninja told them.

"What?" Naruto was trying to understand, but it seemed to have turned into a family argument between Ryu and his uncle.

"Just give him a chance!" Ryu begged.

"No," Gouken snapped, turning back to his cooking, only to find Kasumi had already finished it for him while his attention was turned away and was dishing it out for all four of them to eat. "Thank you, Kasumi-chan."

"You're most welcome, Gouken-san," she replied with a soft smile. "May we eat with you?"

"Uh... I think I've kind of been put off fish for a while," Naruto weakly waved off the meal.

Gouken looked like he was considering being insulted by that, until he suddenly smiled at them and asked, "That damn cat, huh?"

"Please don't tell me that thing's immortal and you had to chase it as a genin!" Ryu cried out in horror.

"Hah!" he barked out a laugh. "No, back in my day of D-Ranks, forever known to me as Damned-Routine sh—"

"Gouken-san!" Kasumi snapped to cut off his cursing.

Coughing and blushing to cover up his blunder, he continued saying, "It used to be the Fire Lord's personal pet. Thing is, that changed practically every season. One week it was a puppy, the next a demon cat, then the bunny rabbit from hell, finally a bunch of bulldogs. We had a crazy Fire Lord back then..."

"What are we doing here again?" Naruto couldn't contain his impatience any longer, and being ignored wasn't helping him much.

"He's not very smart either," Gouken stage-whispered to his nephew, pointing at Naruto.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Naruto got to his feet and almost attacked the resting jounin.

Thankfully his teammates managed to hold him back, just barely.

"Naruto," Kasumi quietly calmed him and sat him back down. "Ryu," she turned to her other teammate with an expectant glare.

"Uh, right," he blushed and addressed both Naruto and his uncle at once. "Well, let me put it like this. Naruto's taijutsu sucks, Uncle. I mean it really, really, _really_ sucks!"

"Gee, thanks, love you too, Ryu," Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto," he said in reply, "Uncle Gouken is my primary taijutsu master. With the exception of my father and the Academy, he's pretty much taught me everything I know about martial arts. If anybody in all of the world can help you with your taijutsu, it's Gouken-sensei."

They couldn't help but notice how Gouken seemed to preen after this statement. "Oh sure, I get insulted, he gets praise. Typical," Naruto muttered.

"Naruto, that's not what I..." Ryu tried to apologize.

Gouken stared with calculating eyes at the short blond. "Hm. Uzumaki Naruto, huh?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Naruto snapped back, tired of being insulted.

"Ryu wasn't insulting you," the man stated after another few seconds of inspection. "He was more than likely stating the simple truth of the matter. I don't see any specialized muscles anywhere on you. That means that you have not learned any particular style of martial arts. Even the most basic and common variety of the arts leaves some trace on the body. You have none."

Naruto blinked, unsure on how to respond to that.

They finished their small meal, more an afternoon snack than anything else, and after they were done, Gouken turned to Naruto and ordered, "OK, show me what you've got."

"Huh?!"

"I know you're not as dim as you pretend to be, boy," the martial arts master snapped at him. "You might be a bit slow, buy I'm pretty sure you've had enough time to figure out what you're doing here by now. Show me what you've got. I'm giving you a chance here, and I only ever give one chance. Don't blow it."

Biting his lip in nervousness, Naruto hesitated, before sighing and resigning himself to this. Especially after he caught the hopeful and encouraging looks both his teammates were shooting his way. So, he stepped a few meters away and began doing the set of kata Ryu and Kasumi had helped him in learning since Team Assignments. In his own opinion, he did fairly well. He was still a bit slow and he knew that he was still thinking through the moves too much rather than just letting them flow naturally, but that would take time.

When he was done, Gouken was frowning at him, and he almost thought he'd done something wrong.

"OK," Gouken turned and said to Ryu. "Go find Nash. You're his for the rest of the afternoon."

Ryu paled dramatically, and even Kasumi shared a look of sympathy for her friend. Naruto was still very confused. "And Kasumi-chan," Gouken added, "I think Ryoko, Ayeka, and Sasami were hoping you'd... spend some time with them." It was Kasumi's turn to pale now. "Or you can go bother Chun-Li if you'd like. Either way, I need some time to introduce my newest apprentice to our Art. Now if you two wouldn't mind?"

"Thank you for the meal, Gouken-san," Kasumi bowed once, then turned and practically ran down the hill and into the woods, casting a "Good luck Naruto!" over her shoulder as she ran. Ryu was right beside her.

"Uh, what just happened?" Naruto asked the towering giant standing next to him.

"I'll explain it to you," Gouken promised. "Come, I have much to show you." He lead the young Uzumaki into the dojo and closed the door shut behind them.

_The Swamp_

_Next Morning_

All three genin members of Team One were sore as they made their way to their usual training platform at 7AM the next morning. After they'd started taking multiple missions each day, Hayato saw no point in tiring them out too early, and Kasumi and Ryu had finally gained enough chakra reserves and control that they escalated to 'level two' Reps along with Naruto, so they could afford the lost hour of training. So he'd told them the day before to not come in until seven in the morning.

After they had left Naruto with Hayabusa Gouken, each of them had been going through their own taijutsu nightmare. Nash, just 'Nash', was the only other man to have trained Ryu in the martial arts, and he was just as sadistic as his other two trainers, but at least those two had a blood relation to the young man. Nash had been... well not really adopted; he was more a friend of the clan so close that he might as well have been an honorary Hayabusa. He did not so much teach taijutsu as weapons, and not just ninja weapons or special weapons, _all_ weapons.

Kasumi, on the other hand, had been cornered by three of Ryu's aunts; Ryoko, Ayeka, and Sasami. Respectively, the Demon, the Valkyrie and the Goddess. They each seemed to view 'Ka-chan' in their own ways as a special project. Ryoko wanted her to be more aggressive, Ayeka wanted her to be more proper and 'civilized', and Sasami just wanted to play with her. Considering Sasami was only a few years older than Kasumi herself, that wasn't surprising so much as it was mortifying, given the games Sasami liked to play.

Naruto though, arguably had it both the worst and the best of each of them. On the one hand, Gouken pretty much overloaded the young man's brain with information about what he was going to be teaching him, and then practically beat it all into him in the first ten minutes. Followed by several _hours_ worth of painstakingly moving the boy's body into what he called 'barely decent enough' shape.

On the other hand, Naruto witnessed first hand what Gouken's martial art style was capable up close and personal as the master demonstrated several key techniques as well as the overwhelming power behind it. He also got to experience one-on-one teaching between a master and a student and soaked up every bit of it like a sponge that never filled up. Back to the negative, by the time he fell asleep that night and woke up the next morning, his entire body ached in ways he never knew it could, but the good of it remained in that he remembered every second of it and treasured the memories more than he did ramen.

Once they had arrived, Hayato, who was already there, had them do 250 _extra_ Reps as punishment for being three minutes late. Kasumi and Ryu were also forced to create shadow clones without using _Chakra Gattai_ first, so there were only about two, three if you count the original, extras running up and down while there were close to a hundred Naruto's.

Hayato observed Naruto and his clones doing their Reps for a few minutes, watching as they ran across the water fairly quickly before jumping up on the trees and racing for the top, all while using chakra to stick several heavy metal plates all over their bodies and holding shuriken above their open palms. As he'd suggested to the blond genin a couple days ago, the shuriken was rotating without having to be touched. Seemingly on his own initiative, Naruto has started alternating the rotation.

To start with, the shuriken in his right hand was rotating clockwise and the one in his left hand was rotating counter-clockwise. Then, as he reached the top of one tree and began running down, he would switch, so the left hand was rotating clockwise and the right hand counter-clockwise, then keeping it up as he ran across the water, and when he reached the top of the next tree, he switched again. This caused some concentration problems and some of the clones typically fell, but usually managed to catch themselves.

The real Naruto was having equal luck, except he was showing the strain more than the clones were. They at least had a limited chakra supply, while he, apparently, did not, making his control worse..

Finally, there came a point at which the real Naruto seemed to fall into a groove and didn't seem to have any more trouble with making the transition on alternating the chakra paths. He wondered how many clones it had taken him to get that good.

"Naruto!" he called after another ten passes where Naruto didn't struggle. "Keep the clones working! Come on in! It's time you went to level three on Reps!"

Naruto and half his clones stumbled, and half of those fell and were destroyed. Gulping, Naruto gathered his wits and nodded, then ran down as fast as he could and then blazed across the water until he was standing on the platform in front of Hayato, only a few seconds after he'd been called.

"Go ahead and take off those plates," Hayato told him. He went over to the bag of supplies for something he'd bought after the first week, but hadn't really expected to need so soon.

Naruto, while impressive in the rate at which he learned things, in comparison to his teammates, only had basic, make that _very_ rudimentary basic genin level chakra control. At least in comparison. For anyone else, particularly his two teammates, his control could be called above average for an experienced genin, if not low chuunin. But considering how much raw chakra he had available and how much he still wasted when using techniques, it was honestly very low still.

What Hayato pulled out would be called a torture device by most, and an executioner's toy by civilians. It was a full-body harness, but instead of springs and weights, it had carbonized steel wires around ninja-mesh bindings and it was covered in seal tags. Some of the seals were clearly gravity seals, typically seen on most training weights that a lot of ninja use, but others were unfamiliar. Those were chakra-suppression seals alongside chakra-disruption seals and restraint-seals, normally only found on high profile prisoners. Particularly very dangerous _ninja_ prisoners.

Naruto just stared at the contraption, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.

"Now," Hayato said to him, "you have two options. Start running Reps wearing this, which normally would be saved for level five of Reps and you'd only have to do it for an hour once a week. OR, you start doing some extra stuff. Alternating the rotations as you're running up and down is good. Very good, in fact. But I'd like you to start working more on your chakra strings technique, as well as the chakra pads technique the Hokage taught you a while back."

"How'd you know about... oh yeah, you were probably spying on us when I showed Ryu and Kasumi the day after I was practicing it, huh?" Naruto accused.

"The perfect counter to the glue trap, oil trap, and combines water-walking, tree-climbing, sand-striding and ice-skating techniques into one? Every jounin worth his salt knows it," Hayato countered. "That you can actually do it is impressive enough, but you haven't been practicing it enough that it becomes second nature just yet. You need to work on it some more."

"So," he said, "what you're going to be doing is incorporate both into your Reps. When you get to the top of the trees, you'll still switch rotations of the shuriken, but when you're on the water, you're going to use the chakra strings technique to take the shuriken from your palm, put it back in those special armbands of yours, while simultaneously pulling out another shuriken from the next slot in the row."

"WHAT?! Th-th-that... THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!" Naruto screamed, outraged.

"The ultimate form of the chakra strings technique is actually known as the Puppet technique," Hayato lectured his student. "I'm sure the Hokage explained at least the basics of what that's about. A master puppeteer can control ten puppets _at once_. That's one puppet for each finger, that's one string for complex movements for a very complex tool. Since all I'm asking you to do is to move four objects at once, that leaves six other fingertips either doing nothing, or helping the ones making the motions. If you need to, I'll give you some time to figure out how to do it, like I gave you in figuring out how to rotate the shuriken. But not forever."

"Oh, and the other thing, instead of just going straight up and straight down, I want you going up the tree in a spiral, using the chakra pads to 'skate' up the tree rather than just run. It will be very different from what you've gotten used to. Likewise with the water walking, I want you to loop the tree once before going up it, and then once more after you come down it before moving onto the next one. You might want to get the clones started on that aspect today, as you'll be expected to be capable of all of this by tomorrow. Any questions?"

Naruto almost blurted out some recriminations about how it wasn't fair, but then he caught Kasumi standing behind Hayato giving him a _look_. He frowned and swallowed his anger and frustration and quietly shook his head.

"Good. First thing after you believe you've mastered level three here, I want you to try using one of your techniques. See if you notice a difference. But only _after_ you've managed to do it without making one single mistake the entire time."

Naruto stared, scowled, then huffed and turned away. He dispelled all his clones them created a bunch of new ones. They immediately started using the chakra pads technique and began skating across the water for the trees, keeping in mind Hayato's instructions about spirals and looping the trees. Since Naruto was not 'wearing' the metal plates, none of the clones were either, but the jounin hadn't said anything about wearing them, had he?

"Oh, and don't forget that you can always just wear this instead!" Hayato called out over his shoulder, holding up the hellish harness. Naruto squirmed and immediately began practicing how to use his chakra strings to switch shuriken from his armbands to his hands and back again. Once he'd figured that much, he promised to himself, _then_ he'd start working on doing both at the same time.

While Naruto was busy with that, he instructed Ryu and Kasumi on a few of the same steps he'd just shown Naruto, though altered accordingly. After they were more or less finished with all that, he then had them do Tips for an hour while verbally quizzing them on little 'lessons' he'd been providing them with when on their missions over the past week. Mostly it was just flash questions about little facts, either about the village, tactics, Konoha strategy in various situations, and other ninja facts. Afterward, he continued the quizzes while they did Revolutions, and he didn't let them stop until they had actually finished a full hundred of them.

They went to do their morning mission around nine, weeding a farmer's crops and helping with the early harvest (learning to sweep the ground for potential traps as well as learning to pay attention to their surroundings), and then came back to the Swamp around 10:30, where Hayato told them that he would show them some training options that would help them out in their combo jutsu training.

Before they could get started though, Hayato received a message via runner (chuunin from the Hokage tower), and then told them to do at least ten Revolutions and then spend the rest of the time until he got back on chakra control exercises. Then they would go out to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch and then head off for their afternoon mission. He was gone before they could ask him what was so urgent.

"So, how was training with Gouken-sensei, Naruto?" Ryu asked once they were alone in the Swamp.

"Exhausting!" Naruto exclaimed, but he was grinning. "But fun! I just can't get over how powerful your uncle, I mean Gouken-sensei is! He actually shattered a rock with a single punch!"

"Did he show you the kicks?" Ryu teased him, also smiling.

"Did he ever!" Naruto gushed.

"How about you, Kasumi-hime?" Ryu tried to draw the kunoichi into the conversation. "How did your afternoon go after we left Naruto to torture training with Gouken-sensei?"

"Hey! It wasn't that bad..." Naruto grumbled.

"It wasn't so bad," Kasumi sighed. "Your aunts are nice, Ryu, but they do get a little over enthusiastic some times. It reminds me of why I don't visit your home more often."

"Hah-hah," he grumbled.

They'd only completed five of the ten laps remaining in their Revolutions when he asked, "So, what should we work on after we finish this up here?"

"That's what I've been trying to think about," she said. "What about trying to work some more on our Team Combos? So far all we've got is the one, and all it really does is have us all three attack going all out. And we don't know when Hayato-sensei will return, so we should try to figure out something for ourselves."

"OK, what should we work on?" Naruto asked. They spent the rest of their Revolutions just popping out ideas and making jokes or impractical suggestions on what they could come up with, laughing about it one minute, then scolding the next if the ideas got too outrageous to even try.

The final lap passed in contemplative silence, beyond the natural sounds of the Swamp and all their clones doing other training, the only sounds they heard were their own thoughts. Finally, they finished and put the steel pole back down on the platform and then lay themselves down to rest. After about three minutes or so, Naruto got back to his feet, already fully revived, while Ryu and Kasumi had at least caught their breath and were no longer sweating as bad.

"OK, seriously," Ryu started, "what should we work on? _Buntai no jutsu: Taijutsu: Ikko Dageki_ or that first combo we used as a team, where Kasumi went high, I went low and Naruto tried to go right through Hayato-sensei?"

Kasumi and Naruto both blinked, then grinned widely.

"High," she said.

"Low," Naruto followed.

"Through," they both finished.

"Huh?" Ryu was totally lost.

"Our new combo!" Kasumi proudly announced. "The Hi-Lo-Thru Kombo!" Then she giggled.

"We probably shouldn't call it that... out loud," Naruto grinned even wider.

Ryu stared, then blinked. "Well, it was pretty effective, wasn't it? OK, so obviously the code phrase to use it, _just_ between the three of us will be Hi-Lo-Thru. But how are we going to practice it?"

"Rock clones?" Naruto suggested with a shrug.

"How about taijutsu dummies, just to start with," Kasumi suggested. "We can practice various combinations, besides just a high kick, a leg sweep and a headbut. If we just keep throwing the same three attacks over and over again we become predictable and that can get us killed. We need to learn how to change it up, and still maintain our timing with each other."

"What's timing got to do with it?" Naruto asked.

"Everything!" Kasumi and Ryu said together.

"OK..." he defensively backed up a bit, holding up his hands. "Well, besides a flying headbut, I don't really know that many taijutsu moves that let me go _through_ someone the same way. Gouken-sensei only just started teaching me last night you know! And the basics you guys have been helping me with aren't exactly flashy. Or that powerful. Or anything more than blocks and dodges with a single punching and kicking form!"

"We know," Ryu grumbled. "And slamming your head repeatedly against a heavy wooden object wouldn't be good for you. You might permanently damage what little working brain cells you still have left."

"HEY!" Naruto screamed at him.

Ryu just laughed, then suggested, "Well, why don't you work with what you do know? Find a way of making the simple punches and simple kicks you do know and make them as powerful as a flying headbut."

"In the meantime, let's work on that Hi-Lo-Thru Kombo idea and see what we can do to make it either more unpredictable and more powerful," Kasumi interrupted the argument about to begin. "Or work at all."

Huffing with annoyance, Naruto reigned in his temper and nodded his head. Ryu shrugged and agreed.

"OK, serious talk this time," Ryu started, "There are lots of different ways to go 'through' someone in a physical attack. Certain kinds of punches. Body slams. Kicks of all kinds. Here, like this." He then took a running start, leapt up mid-step, then twisted his body around into a flying kick that, if it had hit anything, would have sent it flying! "That's even in the Academy basics that we've been teaching you for the past few weeks. Easy, right?"

"Oh, OK, I can do that!" Naruto enthused, already dreaming up all the different ways he could use the various moves he'd already learned and used in his unique style of taijutsu.

"Before we get moving or even fighting targets, let's work on stationary targets," Kasumi said, even as she started to set something up on the elevated platform in the middle. Both of the boys saw what she was trying to do and quickly helped her.

Before too long, they had a sort of training dummy set up, made up out of the old logs that had once been _Old Misery_ and the stone pillar _Silent Misery_ to make a rather intimidating stick-figure dummy. The actual wood pieces made up the head, arms and 'legs' while the stone pillar made up the torso. The simple objective was to knock the whole thing down with one simultaneous, or a string of combination attacks.

"OK, ready?" Naruto called out, hoping to inspire that same feeling from when they first met.

Ryu and Kasumi both nodded and then all three charged together.

And promptly tripped over each others feet and fell flat on their faces.

"OK, maybe we need a different start signal," Naruto painfully admitted.

They tried again, this time Ryu called out, "GO!"

Same result.

This time Kasumi suggested something.

"How about we start from different angles?" she offered. "Naruto, you can start off from the front and charge head on, like we know you would anyway. And then Ryu and I can attack from the sides."

They agreed and tried that out. Naruto charged straight forward, planning on just driving a straight kick right through the stone 'torso', while Ryu came in from the left to sweep the 'legs' and Kasumi tried her Spinning Bird kick on the wooden 'head' of the giant training dummy. They did not get in each others way, but they didn't exactly make much of a dent in their training dummy either. All three managed to hit at the same time, but the wires tying the logs to the stone pillar were too strong and Naruto ended up hurting his foot more than tipping the thing over.

So they tried again. And again. And again, and again.

Fifteen minutes later, all three were gasping and rubbing sore legs, fists, or whatever they had been attacking with the most. The training dummy stood whole and in fact wasn't even dented.

"I don't get it," Naruto whined, after catching his breath. "This worked against Hayato-sensei! At least a couple times! And we didn't even talk it out ahead of time!"

"Well, for one thing," Ryu pointed out, wiping the sweat off his brow, "Hayato isn't a seven foot plus stone pillar with wooden extremities held by high-strength ninja wire. And I don't think we're doing this right."

"You're right," Kasumi nodded her head in agreement. "We attacked Hayato-sensei's basic weak points when this worked. We've just been attacking this thing head on, hoping to have the same results."

"So what?" Ryu was confused by her logic, "We attack the joints? All that will do is knock the logs off, then we'll have to put them back on. I thought the objective was to knock the whole thing down?"

"We should also alternate who does what," she said. "This time I'll go low, and you go high, Ryu. Naruto, I want you to start trying to figure out the 'weak points' for this thing. Right now you've been going pretty low with your own attacks. I'd like you to try going a bit higher until you find the... oh what do you call it Ryu? The point where the most force can be applied?"

Ryu laughed and answered, "The Sweet Spot."

"Right! Yes! Try and find the... Sweet Spot on our training dummy here," she told Naruto.

The blond nodded and they all got into position. Except this time, Naruto was running just a bit faster and got to it first. This seemed to throw the timing off for the others, so when Naruto hit a bit higher and harder, Kasumi missed a step and Ryu jumped early so it was more a 'Thru-Hi-Lo' combo. And it still didn't knock the training dummy over.

Seeing that didn't work, Naruto tried going low with a full-body sweep of the 'legs', not _quite_ twisting the thing around, but coming close, after Ryu tried another shot at the head, and Kasumi shot a high jump kick at the middle. It did move, but it wasn't about to topple over.

Another fifteen minutes later, Hayato finally returned from his meeting with the Hokage, who had finally given him the go ahead on what he'd been wanting to do since the first week with his genin. Now with the Hokage's permission, all he needed to do was to approach the individual Jounin Sensei's of the other genin teams and get them to agree. Once they agreed, the Hokage would start assigning Team One joint missions, to give them, and the other teams, experience in working together with other ninja besides their immediate teammates. It was also one step closer to making his team a true Support Team.

When he got back and saw them all trying their hardest to attack a stick figure training dummy set up in the middle of the platform. So far, Naruto had finally found the sweet spot in the middle and was going after it with every attack he knew of, short of throwing shadow clones at it, and with enough strength he could usually get it to lean back a bit, but if the logs were still on the base, then it would right itself almost immediately. He watched as Ryu and Kasumi both took their turns at attacking the middle, and kept switching between the 'head' and the 'legs' and could usually dislodge the logs attached their with enough repeated attacks, but they seemed to keep missing the mark and when Naruto attacked, it was moved in the wrong way so it couldn't really fall over. Seeing all this, Hayato was glad he'd already picked up the tools needed for their combo-training.

Waiting until they were all three charging together, he flashed in behind them and spoke, "I see we have much we have to work on."

"AAAHHHHH!!" all three screamed, aborting their charge and turned to face their Jounin Sensei, tense and in defensive postures, ready to attack at a moments notice. Seeing him, they screamed again, "DON'T DO THAT!!"

"Sorry," he said, unapologetic. "Nice idea. We'll come back to that later. For right now, let's work on your movements. Well, your movements and your timing."

He pulled out his bag and pulled out a harness made out of elastic material.

"We'll only do this during team training hours the first day," he told them. "But if there's not significant improvement by tomorrow, then you'll start doing missions with this thing on."

"What is it?" Ryu asked anxiously.

He held it up so they could see the three belted loops all going to a central lock, allowing a maximum of ten feet at full stretch, though it hung loose at around three to four feet between each loop and the lock. "You will wear this during the rest of today's training, and you'll send shadow clones to do your afternoon missions today. Then I'll walk you through a number of team training exercises. Some of which you've already done, some you might have heard of, and a couple that you probably haven't. The end result will be that you'll be able to pull off just about anything and call it a _buntai no jutsu_ and do some real damage. Any questions?"

"Uh, how do we put it on?" Naruto raised his hand as he asked the question. Hayato grinned.

"Like this," he showed them, and then sealed them into the harness.

_Hayabusa Clan Compound_

_Later That Afternoon_

After their new training in combination, timing, and cohesive movement, the genin of Team One were as exhausted as their first day of training all over again. Hayato told them that he had seen _some_ improvement by the end of their team training as their clones reported back from their missions. At least they were no longer tripping over each others feet, which had been happening a lot when they first started.

Finally, he let them go and Ryu dragged Naruto back to his family compound, intent on training up the boy's taijutsu skills in hopes of making the combo training more bearable, while Kasumi begged off, saying that her family wanted to give her some private training that evening. They really did but it wasn't until after dinner, and she could've gone with them for a couple of hours if she'd wanted to. She didn't.

Ryu said his aunts would understand, all while laughing out loud.

So here they were, Naruto and Ryu under the watchful eye of Ryu's uncle, Gouken. He'd had them change into their 'training outfits', and they surprised him by using the _Ishou Irege no Fuuinjutsu _(Sealing Arts Clothing Switch) to change from an orange jumpsuit and black ninja attire respectively to a red sleeveless gi with a black belt and a worn white gi with the sleeves torn off. They all had a brief laugh as Gouken shared the story of his younger brothers who'd come up with that 'stupid seal' and how Ryu had begged to learn it. Immediately after that though, Ryu was practicing his punches and kicks against a large (typical Konoha) tree with thick coils of rope wrapped around the trunk. Meanwhile, Naruto was getting drilled in the basics.

"Hmph!" Gouken grunted, slapping the back of Naruto's legs with a bamboo switch. "Keep your feet firmly on the ground! Feel it like a pillar of energy connecting you to the center of the earth and the heavens above! None of that dancing-weak-ankles-sliding stuff the Academy teaches! Keep your arms straight! Don't slouch, your spine must be perfectly perpendicular to the ground upon which you stand at all times! Punch harder!!"

Naruto was beginning to wonder if the whole concept of one-on-one training was worth this. At least when he'd been on his own he wasn't in danger of having his eardrums burst!

"And don't think I didn't see that look in your eyes, runt!" Gouken screamed right in his face. "Feel free to walk out at any time. I'm only doing this as a _favor_ to my favorite nephew and a punk kid like you certainly doesn't need any favors! So don't make me waste my time! NOW DO IT!!"

Naruto gulped, barely keeping the words "_Some favor..._" from leaving his mouth, but he managed and paid closer attention to how to position his body and began following the instructions to the letter. When finally Gouken stopped shouting at him every single second, he began to wonder if he was doing something wrong or was about to be kicked out because he was wasting his new sensei's time.

So, in hopes to avoid being tossed out on his butt, he put even more effort into following Gouken-sensei's instructions, keeping full concentration on the positioning of his body as he did so. After about ten minutes or so though, he began to feel something... Something that...

He felt strength. With every move his body now made, he felt more strength flowing through him than he'd ever imagined before. This wasn't chakra, or even the feeling of power he got after a week or two of steady exercise (IE running and pulling pranks on ANBU). He couldn't really describe it, only feel it. After a few minutes, he traced the feeling to what he believed as the source. His... foot?

No, that wasn't right. It was the way his foot was placed and how he'd positioned his body, so there was a maximum amount of support and a minimum amount of effort into moving. He... he felt like his foot was connected to a giant pillar that could not be shaken or toppled, it stretched from the sky above him down into the center of the earth, and it gave him the stability to use more of his body's strength than he knew he had.

"Hmph," Gouken grunted, startling Naruto and making him think he'd done something wrong.

"So, you finally felt it, huh?" he said instead. "Keep practicing. Don't make a move unless you feel what you just felt there first. This is the most basic of the basics of our martial arts. If you cannot stand, you cannot fight. I'm going to go yell at Ryu now, he needs the encouragement. Keep up the good work, Naruto." Then he left and walked over to Ryu and started yelling at him as he'd been yelling at Naruto up till then.

Naruto stood there, stunned. He'd just received a compliment. He was doing it right! He grinned and almost shouted out and jumped for joy, but (barely) contained himself. He redoubled his focus and took a few calming breaths and felt for that feeling of the pillar once again and spent the rest of the afternoon practicing the different positions Gouken-sensei had shown him.

Later that night, in his apartment by himself, Naruto continued to practice the various positions, wanting to impress Gouken-sensei with his work ethic, and while admittedly selfish of him, he also wanted to receive more praise! After ten minutes of being unable to find the 'pillar' though, Naruto almost gave up in frustration when he hit upon an idea.

Hayato-sensei had explained to them that first week that the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ was a 'force amplifier' in more than just one way, aka force of numbers. As Naruto taught Kasumi and Ryu the technique, Hayato explained to all of them that what the shadow clone learned, when it was dispelled, the original learned it too. It was why he had Naruto training with shadow clones every day in doing Reps and other chakra control exercises, because the experience in training the shadow clones received became theirs after they were done. From a certain point of view, while Team One had been formed only a little under a month ago, and had been training every day since then, Naruto had actually received the equivalent of _months_ of the same training while Kasumi and Ryu had gotten several weeks worth.

So, on a whim, he created about ten shadow clones and had them each stand at a different position around him, ordering them to watch his movements and compare them to how it should look. He remembered what it was _supposed_ to look like, having Gouken and Ryu both demonstrate the moves they'd wanted him to work on, so he felt it would be rather obvious.

He still didn't feel like he was doing it exactly right, and was beginning to wonder if it was because he stood on a hardwood floor in a second floor apartment building rather than on a dirt and grass covered hill. When he dispelled his shadow clones though, he _instantly_ knew what he'd been doing wrong, having seen himself move from several different perspectives and what was wrong with his form.

He immediately made another ten shadow clones and started again, keeping in mind the corrections that he needed to make and began again. Before he got too far though, one of his clones moved in and adjusted his footing, while another had him straighten his back and two others repositioned his hips. When another was about to come and start moving his arms, he caught on and corrected it himself. In the blink of an eye, he felt it again, the 'pillar' as he was beginning to think of it. His body naturally aligned after that point and the clones went back to just observing him as he went through his exercises another three times before dispelling them.

After that he did all of his exercises and practicing with shadow clone observers, just to be sure, even after he'd begun doing it so well that it became natural and habitual. The next few days when he went to train with Ryu and Gouken-sensei, after team training, he'd create shadow clones to watch from every possible angle on how his sensei and his teammate moved and then himself so he could correct anything that he did wrong.

When Gouken confirmed that Naruto had made more progress in a few days than Ryu had when he'd first started learning the martial arts, Ryu began using his own clones to help in training. Usually he stuck to _Mizu Bunshin_ rather than _Kage Bunshin_, as the water clones required less chakra, and without _Chakra Gattai_ he could only create about two shadow clones effectively.

After he'd learn the basics of the basics, as Gouken-sensei called it, Naruto began to learn how to defend, then how to dodge and avoid, and only after his defense was as strong as it could be did Gouken and Ryu teach him how to punch and kick and attack. As a means of keeping Naruto interested in learning the martial arts, both of them refused to teach him any 'special techniques' like the _Shoryuken_ Ryu had used against Hayato in their Genin Test until he'd mastered all of the basics of the basics and started mastering just the basics, although Gouken did show off a few of the more advanced techniques every now and then.

_The Swamp_

_The Next Day_

"I've been thinking," Ryu said to his teammates, whom he was currently strapped to as they did Revolutions. "This thing with our chakra being able to fuse and sort of give each of us a boost. It's pretty unique, right?"

"I've certainly never heard of anyone else being able to do it," Kasumi told him.

"I've heard from the Old Man that it's possible to give chakra to others, sort of replenishing their reserves for really powerful jutsu," Naruto commented from the middle. "But what we do is different, right?"

"It doesn't just let us give each other our chakra, it seems to make it stronger, giving us more than just what we put into it," Kasumi observed. "At least when we use _Chakra Gattai_, that's what it feels like."

"So why don't we try coming up with a jutsu that does more than just give us a boost that a soldier pill could do just as easily?" Ryu asked them.

"I mean, come on, think about it. Being able to use A-Rank jutsu is cool and all, but we always have to get together and then break apart to use it. Let's try and come up with one that we can use in comment and there's no delay between us getting together and attacking. Or defending, or whatever."

"That's a good idea, Ryu," Naruto said. "We can even make it a _buntai jutsu_, a team combination technique! It'll be awesome!"

"Exactly!" They finished their Revolution and set the steel pole down and then sat down on it.

"The first question we have to ask ourselves," Kasumi restarted the conversation, "is do we want to focus on offense, defense, or some other support technique, like healing or resupplying our weapons or something like that? Personally, given how all of us know _at least_ one high-ranking offensive jutsu, I think we should focus on defense. Maybe an ultimate defense..."

"What's an ultimate defense?" Naruto asked, scratching his head in confusion.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Ryu answered before Kasumi could. "Any defense, from walls to a basic block, to ninjutsu or armor and shields, all defenses have inherent weaknesses. The ultimate defense has no weaknesses, save for one; once you're under an ultimate defense, you can't attack. At all. ...What kind of ultimate defense can we come up with using chakra fusion anyway?"

"Well... I'm not sure," Kasumi admitted. "The only 'ultimate defenses' that are well-known are usually associated with some bloodline limit, like the _Kaiten_ the Hyuugas use with their Byakugan."

"That's hardly an _ultimate_ defense," he argued.

"Still," she glared at him, "we'll have to come up with something, and even if it won't be an ultimate technique, it would be something. What about... I don't know, creating a chakra force field?"

Ryu burst out laughing at that, almost rolling around on the floor at certain points. "Oh come ON! A chakra force field? Who's been reading a little too many mangas here? Besides, everybody knows you need special seals to pull off that kind of thing, not just pure chakra, which is all we know how to do with the stuff after we create it!"

"Well, what about chakra strings?" Naruto asked. "That's pure chakra and doesn't require extra seals."

"That's shape-manipulation," Kasumi replied dourly.

"Doesn't mean we can't use it," Ryu pointed out.

"How do you mean?" she asked him.

He shrugged and answered, "Remember how Naruto and Hayato-sensei told us about how chakra strings can be used to control puppets, which are actually mobile weapons? Well, what about using it on just our weapons? Weapons that we can replicate thanks to the _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. And! And, my family's chakra sensing exercise! Remember that analogy that we used to explain about how it worked to Naruto?"

They both nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"Well what if we set it up so that the chakra strings, attached to replicated weapons, also act like ninja wire traps! So that they go off and fire the weapons at any kind of movement or nearby chakra signatures once the technique is active! Oh, it would be awesome! Even better! We could use it for both offense _and_ defense!"

At this Kasumi raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Think about it!" Ryu enthusiastically gushed. "Surround the guy, use the technique and he's suddenly surrounded by a virtual cloud of floating weapons, all of them on a hair trigger! Even if he had his own ultimate defense, it would be pretty devastating!"

"And for defense! Instead of turning the weapons inward to a single target, we could surround ourselves with mobile protection, floating over a hundred shuriken, kunai, and flying needles, all ready to go flying at whatever gets too close to use! Not an ultimate defense, but it would work, right?"

Kasumi sighed and shook her head. "What you're talking about, Ryu... it's, the chakra requirements alone would be devastating to anyone less than chuunin! And the _control_ required, low _jounin_ at best!"

Ryu grinned.

"That's where the teamwork comes into play," he told her. "Naruto and _Chakra Gattai_ can easily take care of supplying the actual chakra. To make it easy, at least until we get it figured out, we can swap tasks. All three of us use _Chakra Gattai_, but then one replicates their choice of weapon, like I would use _Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu_, Naruto likes to use shuriken, and you have a preference for those needles of yours, Kasumi-hime. Then another, probably you at first, Kasumi, would use chakra strings to catch all of the new weapons, and the third person would activate the chakra sensing exercise!"

"Of course the ultimate goal would be to make it so that the technique itself takes care of all that and we can replicate as many of everything we have as much as we want. Maybe even get the whole thing to be completely automatic, but..."

"That would require _years_ of work!" Kasumi exclaimed.

Ryu shrugged. "Are you saying it wouldn't be worth it?"

She faltered for a second, then sighed and kind of shrugged. "OK, I admit, it would be a very effective and certainly versatile jutsu to develop, _if_ we could ever get it to work! At the very least just trying would give us means of increasing our own chakra control and chakra levels."

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted. "So, uh, what's first?"

"That, you figure out on your own time," Hayato said from right behind them. They all jumped and screamed again, but forewent shouting at him this time. "You can have a week of afternoon training hours to work on that, as I've got some things I'll need to do after our missions. For now though, you're still sloppy in your attacks! There's too much hesitation and one of you is always checking to see what the other two are doing instead of just doing it! Start moving!"

Grumbling, the three bound genin got to their feet and resumed the unique torture—er, training that their Jounin Sensei was forcing, uh instructing them in doing.

_The Swamp_

_A Week Later_

"While your clones are off on today's afternoon missions, I'm going to give you three an opportunity to show off, and then we're going to see what we still need to be focusing on in your Team Training," Hayato said to his genin. "Don't worry about the mission by the way, it's just to clean an old storeroom in one of the old cellars below the Monument."

"To learn how to leave no trace in a room or area in enemy territory," Naruto quoted from the 10 minute debriefing they'd gotten before creating the shadow clones that would go on the mission. There were just under a hundred Naruto's and another five or six Ryu and Kasumi's on the platform, even after those had left this time. They had been doing this for the past week, although they did alternate on some days, where Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu went and completed D-Rank missions, doing at least three a day now, one in the morning and two in the early afternoon. Then on the other days, they stayed in the Training Area 25 while they sent out dozens of shadow clones to complete the D-Ranks in their stead. Sometimes the originals only really did one mission a day, and all the others were done by their shadow clones.

"All right, it's time you tell me how far you are on that technique you three were discussing, having to do with chakra fusion," Hayato questioned them with an odd combination of both stern and kindliness. "I gave you a week to work on it. Week's up."

The three looked a little embarrassed and silent until Naruto spoke, "Well, we haven't really gotten it to work and it's not really something that uses chakra fusion exactly. We did come up with something that needs _Chakra Gattai_ though."

Ryu nodded, and explained, "Yes, create a storm of projectiles as protective shield around us. First we'd make shadow copies of our weapons, massive amounts of them, and then use chakra strings to control them. We'd need the added chakra that _Chakra Gattai_ gives us to create enough so it will work. We thought we'd call it; _Buntai no jutsu: Mamori Arashi_ (Team Technique: Defending Tempest)."

Kasumi took over and continued explaining, "We have quite a few other ideas for chakra fusion techniques, but the problem is that we all have gaps in our knowledge, so we're not ready for those yet. Naruto knows no elemental techniques. None of us know our affinities yet, and the elemental techniques Ryu and I know are either not suitable for us to combine together, or at the least not with any technique the other has. Finally, the elemental techniques we do know we could put together, well, we were just taught how to perform it, or we figured it out after seeing others do it – we do not know the intricate details of the jutsu to be able to combine them together – if it is even possible with a technique not of our affinity, which as I said we don't really know yet."

"Hm, show me how far you are with your tempest then," Hayato said calmly, nodding slowly.

"Hai, sensei," Team One answered in unison, and they quickly used the _Chakra Gattai_ move to prepare themselves for the next few steps.

They each pulled out one of their tools; Kasumi a senbon, Ryu a kunai, and Naruto a shuriken. Performing a mass cloning on them had the training area filled with ninja tools. They were everywhere around them and their teacher, on the ground, and floating in the air – for now, Gravity was already pulling the ones in the air to the ground.

They had originally hoped to limit how much each of them had to do, in order to better focus on what had to be done and to get the most out of the potential of their experimental technique, sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, after their first day in trying to get it to work, they discovered that it would be a lot harder than they'd thought.

Originally, one was supposed to replicate the weapons, another was supposed to use chakra strings, and the last was supposed to link the chakra sensing to the strings to complete the technique. The limitations soon became obvious as their chakra strings weren't very adept yet, and the only way to attach the chakra sensing was to be the one generating the chakra strings in the first place!

So, they compromised and all three decided to work on it equally, so as to improve through sheer trial and error. Most of the past week had been spent more on their individual training in using _Senbon/Shuriken/Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu_, chakra strings, and attaching the sensing capability to the chakra strings, rather than putting it all together. As such, there was some difficulty in using the actual jutsu.

With faces contorted in concentration, the members of Team One was starting to lash out with chakra strings at the floating ninja tools. The first ten, one on each finger, was pretty easy for genin team. After that, though, things got progressively more difficult. Multiple strings attached to the tip of one finger, then down its length – at which point Naruto's and Ryu's ability stalled out. Kasumi in contrast managed to get a good amount of them on the palm of her hand as well. Still, nearly half of the multiple thousand of ninja tools dropped to the ground – the ones that hit a rock, wood (from a tree), or a particular solid bit of ground, poofed out of existence.

The ones that the group caught with their strings though, a good few hundred started to move; making outward and circular motion. The idea was to make them weave in and out as they circled around them – that way the cloud of steel didn't move too far away, allowing gaps that enemies could move through. That was easier said than done though, the ninja tools soon started to slam into one another, poofing out of existence. The movements of the implements started getting more erratic; especially when Team One attempted to grab a new kunai, shuriken or senbon off of the ground with a freed chakra string. Exclaims of warning, frustration, encouragement or all of the above were tossed at each other, and then with a sad whimper, the still slowly-moving remainder of the ninja tools clashed, or just fell to the ground.

Team One looked at the remains of their failed attempt; lots of the ninja tool copies – and three real ones – lying unmoving on the ground.

"Heh, that's as far as we've gotten!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically, "But we'll get it soon enough!"

"Hmm," Hayato said, holding his chin as he thought about what he had sensed from their attempt. "You'd be a lot better at it, if you stopped trying to avoid each others strings. With all your extra chakra from the _Chakra Gattai_ and your ability to fuse your chakra, you should be able to move the strings uninterrupted through each others strings, just like you can move your own strings through each other."

"You can move the strings through each other!" Ryu exclaimed in surprised shock. Kasumi and Naruto turned their heads toward him, wondering if he was just joking or really that clueless. "What!? Nobody told me before today," Ryu said in annoyance.

Naruto looked at him, and then grinned widely. Apologetically he exclaimed, "Ah! I guess I forgot to tell one thing the Old Man taught me about the chakra strings. Sorry." Kasumi stifled her laughter slightly, it was fun to see the ignorant exclamation and the sagely advice be reversed for a change – and Ryu's dumb look was a lot more funny than Naruto's, or was it just because his was so out of place? "Eh, Kasumi, how did you know when I forgot to say that?" Naruto asked out loud, not a least bit embarrassed.

Kasumi had gotten used Naruto's loud and brash behavior and found she didn't mind. It suited the blonde. "I figured it out on my own," the pony-tailed redhead replied.

"Tsch," Ryu muttered in disgust, his arms folded across his chest in disgust.

Hayato let out an audible sigh that worked to bring his team's attention on him. "All right then, now that that's been cleared up, let's try that again, shall we?" Hayato said, slapping his hands together to snap them back into business mode.

"Hai, sensei," Team One said, and started making their chakra strings move out again, grabbing the ninja tools that lay around them on the floor.

A moment later a lot of them rose into the air, and they started moving again, the three of them now attempting the same thing again, but now allowing the strings to move through each other. Instead, the tools quickly fell down again. Once again, some of them poofed out of existence, along with some of those that were on the floor – when a floating one landed on them.

"I though you said you could move the strings through each other uninterrupted?" Ryu questioned in annoyance at failure.

"You can," Kasumi answered in, a little frustrated herself. Moving the strings through her own was a lot easier than through the others. "But it takes a little practice."

"Again!" Hayato cut off their self-pitying party.

Once again Team One attempted their technique, and once again failed. Not bothering to complain again, they tried again, and again, and again.

Until finally, a small hail of the projectiles on invisible strings swirled around them. "I think we're doing it," Kasumi said as she saw the projectiles whirl around them protectively. It was nowhere near the number they had originally envisioned, or the speed, and already after several tries she was feeling the strain, but they had pulled it off. The law of Murphy had to set in of course, and a couple of the projectiles slammed against each other, poofing away. It was all that was necessary to break the genin's concentration. More and more projectiles slammed against each other, and with one final desperate surge of their already strained chakra reserves to attempt to regain control, the projectiles sped up, completely out of control and were flung away. A good chunk of them were flying straight at their jounin-sensei who had been standing outside of the projectile halo up until now. A moment later the jounin was a bloodied pin, shuriken and kunai cushion. With poofs, the projectiles disappeared, then another poof and the jounin disappeared, leaving a log to drop to the floor.

"Were you deliberately using me as a target?" a dry voice of steel with a hint of humor sounded from directly behind the genin.

"GAH!" the team exclaimed as one, turned around with a jump as one, pointed accusingly at their sensei as one, and yelled as one, "DON'T DO THAT!"

Hayato chuckled for a moment, and then was all business. "All right, one more time. To truly master a technique, one must also know its limitations, pay attention."

"Hai, sensei!" Team One acknowledged and started weaving their chakra strings again, much more difficult now that they were tired from all the earlier attempts.

"_Raiton: Hariden_ (Lightning Release: Lightning Needles)!" Hayato exclaimed, forming the seals almost as an afterthought, watching as dozens of needle-sized points of bluish white light speared from around him towards the trio of genin and into their swirling projectiles. Poofs of smoke were everywhere, and then the training area was devoid of projectiles – except the three originals: a senbon was lying on the floor, a kunai was stuck in a tree, and a shuriken was stuck in a rock. Hayato pointed them out as he explained, "Shadow copies don't even need half as much effort to destroy than the originals."

"Hai, sensei," the team answered somewhat subdued.

"Good effort though. You just need to keep working on it," Hayato said, then grinned sadistically at his three genin. "Which you will do for the rest of the afternoon. Before we leave here today, I want all three of you able to maintain those weapons in a steady pattern around you. Don't worry about making it perfect and able to dodge or cover all the angles yet. Your still having too much trouble just keeping them aloft amidst all the others. Go ahead and recharge yourselves, then maybe make some shadow clones to help in learning how to do this. I'll be observing from the sidelines while you're doing this."

They all nodded and took only another minute to rest before using _Chakra Gattai_ to regain their lost chakra, having done all this off of just that first burst, and then creating close to two or three dozen groups of shadow clones. Of course Naruto had some overflow, but that was easily remedied when Hayato had the extra couple hundred blond shadow clones run level three Reps while the groups on the platform spread out to get some room for having multiple clouds of projectiles just floating around.

The first dozen, including the originals, just worked on keeping the weapons aloft. Half of the second dozen worked on summoning copies and then catching them as soon as they were made, while the other half focused on dividing up the making copies and the using chakra strings. The final dozen worked on 'firing' the weapons off into the trees, and since these were all shadow clones, even the ones that the copies were made from, there were no lost weapons during this time of experimentation.

By the time their clones from this morning had returned from doing missions, they felt they were now capable of at least _enacting_ the jutsu, if not using it fully in combat conditions.

"I'm rather impressed with your Mamori Arashi, so we're going to be working more on it," Hayato began, looking at his team. "I don't suppose you already have figured out to minimize its weaknesses, have you?"

"Ah, well, yes," Kasumi said, her team mates look at her as well. "We could conceal the kunai under bushes, lying in high grass; and then use chakra string as a trap trigger. Enemy walks into it, we pull the close by hidden projectiles at them . . . but we're not good enough at it to actually do it."

Hayato thought about it a moment, and then nodded, "Good idea."

"All right, Kasumi!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically, pumping his hand in the air.

"Anyway, you three have outsmarted yourselves, really," Hayato commented with a grin that was only seen through his eyes. "Whirling projectiles around yourself is difficult. Simply launching all your projectiles at your enemy and having them follow him, however, is much more easy. So, we will be working on your defense technique, by turning it into an attack. Master the _Buntai no jutsu: Inmetsu Nadare_, and you will have improved your ability with your defense, and although you won't have mastered it yet, in the meantime you'll have another weapon in your arsenal."

"Sounds good," Ryu said with a grin, already envisioning enemies reduced to pin cushions.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed valiantly.

"Get started then, begin individually, make some clones to act as the enemy target. Once you are able to hit your target alone, merge it in a combo," Hayato told them, and stood back to watch them, and give pointers where needed.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto exclaimed while making his own personal cross seal. Instantly six Naruto's appeared, who all then used the _Ishou Irege no Fuuinjutsu_ to switch to their black stereotypical ninja costumes in order to play act as enemy ninja.

Naruto went to work, making a whole bunch of shadow clone shuriken, as the black "enemies" distanced themselves – two for each member of Team One. As the other two went to perform their own training a little ways of, Naruto stretched out ten chakra strings – one from each finger – grabbed a whole bunch of the shuriken, and shot them forward with a whipping motion. The strings were attached to the middle hole of the shuriken allow them to circle as they should. His targets started running and he pulled the shuriken after them. Soon his strings reached a tree, and he had to let go of the shuriken; swivel the strings around the tree and grab the shuriken on the other side. He failed miserably, the shuriken falling to the floor and puffing out of existence.

"Again!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically, not letting his failure get the better of him. He grabbed some more shuriken, and started again. This time the "enemy" ninja destroyed his shadow shuriken by tossing a boulder on them.

"Again!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kasumi smiled as she heard Naruto's enthusiastic shout, just as her "enemies" tricked her into slamming her shadow senbon – an easy fifty of them – into a tree, causing them to puff out of existence after impact. She thought about it for a moment, and then sent another whirl of senbon on chakra strings off after the kage bunshin. Now she split them up into two groups, letting one soar over the trees the bunshin were hiding amongst, and the other simply close to the ground. The opponent that she sent the senbon after, created a kage shuriken of his own, and launched them after hers. They clashed and most of both sets of ninja tools were destroyed – except the group of senbon Kasumi had sent up and over the trees, and now brought crashing down. Naruto's clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Got one!" Kasumi exclaimed with a grin.

"Oh, good idea!" came from the real Naruto, and a moment later a new transformed clone arrived to take the destroyed one's place.

Meanwhile, Ryu's kunai were a wave of death that perfectly honed in on their intended targets. Too bad the targets weren't stationary and there were all kinds of obstacles. He had already lost several waves of his kunai. He heard Naruto's unwillingness to give up, and Kasumi's success at vanquishing one of her foes.

He almost had one! The clone had pulled out its own kunai and intended to knock the kunai on a string away, and it succeeded in doing so with a lot of them, but Ryu had an inspiration – with a yank of his hand one of his kunai dipped underneath the defensive swing of the clone. A moment later it disappeared in a puff of smoke as the kunai pierced its faux flesh. The rest of his kunai had moved completely chaotically as a result of his motion though; and he lost all of them soon after.

The following clone proved to be an illusive bastard though; not to mention unusually adept at using the natural environment as a shield. The strings seemed to refuse Ryu's commands; it was frustrating him.

"Ryu, stop moving your entire hand around – don't let frustration get the better of you. You need more subtle finger movements; think like a conductor of an orchestra; complete overview," Hayato handed his student his advice.

"Hai, sensei," Ryu answered, thought about it a moment, while calming himself down, and tried again.

After realizing how much useful information came back from a destroyed clone facing all kinds of projectiles on a string tactics, the team performed a _Chakra Gattai_; and Kasumi and Ryu made their own clones to be targets for the others. As such, it did not take long before they were ready to try it together. Like before, doing it together proved to be much more difficult than doing it alone. The use of the tactics required that the three were in sync and each did something else; passing the strings through each other they could do, but there was still in instinct to avoid each others. The trees didn't help either – the defense technique kept everything close, and thus had no conflict with them; the attack version was a different animal altogether.

Ryu winced as several of his kunai were destroyed by some of Kasumi's senbon needles. Both needed to compensate and only barely kept their projectiles from slamming into a rather large rock. But they had him: surrounded by the projectiles all around him, the clone zipped to his right, the only opening remaining.

"I got him!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, his shuriken perforating a clone. His two team mates had used their projectiles to herd the clone straight into Naruto's hidden side attack. The clone disappeared.

"You're still losing too much ammunition through crashing into obstacles and crashing into each others projectiles," Hayato commented thoughtfully. "You need to correct that."

"Hai sensei," his team answered together.

Hayato thought it over for a moment, and then had an insight. "Try to think about your team mates projectiles less as obstacles and more as allies. And then, stop trying to use your eyes and mind only for the attack. Attempt to feel it, feel your team mates; you have shown you can act as one on some level – allow that to guide your hands."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed with a huge smile, "Team One will not fail! Come on, guys! I know we can do this. Hayato-sensei is right! No more frustrating thinking – just do it! Never give up!"

'Just do it,' was probably the anti-thesis of Kasumi and Ryu. Kasumi was a thinker; Ryu was drilled into using repetition after repetition, kata after kata to perfect his craft – to both of them, there was no such thing as 'Just doing it.' And to designate thinking as frustrating didn't work with either of them. But as before, whenever Naruto got loud and spoke his pep talks – especially during that first day and Naruto's unrelenting stubbornness – the team just 'clicked'. Naruto's loudness became a reminder of that first day and everything they had 'just done' back then. So, with determined grins, Team One decided that 'just doing it' would just have to do it.

"_Buntai no jutsu: Immetsu Nadare_ (Team Combo: Destructive Avalanche)!" the three yelled as one, bringing forth a new load of shadow projectiles based upon a new original as they started the entire jutsu from scratch. Chakra string after chakra string shot out moments later, grabbing the projectiles and launching them after one of Ryu's clones. Some projectiles clashed together and puffed out of existence; but they didn't let it deter them – they just let the projectiles go on without thinking about it. Groups of the projectiles moved up, others zipped left and right. Many crashed into obstacles – but as with the collisions between projectiles there were far less of them, and it didn't slow their jutsu down.

In no time at all, the Ryu clone was surrounded on all sides, a tempestuous sphere of death rushing to end its existence from which there was no escape. The clone attempted a fire jutsu – and he managed to destroy a tenth of the sphere before the jutsu reached him – but there were simply too many, and they were just coming too fast. The clone wasn't fast enough to circle all the way around in order to burn the shadow weapons out of existence – and so a moment later he was pierced in every part of his body. Kunai, shuriken, and senbon sticking out everywhere. If clones bled, he would have been a nice red multi-sided fountain. Instead, he vanished out of existence in a cloud of white jutsu smoke.

"Yes!" Naruto screamed loudly. His team mates grinned at their handiwork.

"Hm," Hayato said, his tone both admiring and stern. His team turned around to look at him. "You're still losing too many projectiles – I think you lost nearly a forth – however, that is a functional and complete jutsu. It will only get better with repetition and in-the-field experience."

"Hai, Sensei!" his team answered as one with satisfied smiles.

"Lunch is on me," Hayato said, and handed a bill to each of them, then their enigmatic sensei disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hey, guys, before we have lunch, there's one more thing I'd like to try," Naruto said with a foxy grin, that set off a few alarm bells in his team mates they chose to ignore.

"What, Naruto?" Kasumi asked him intrigued.

Naruto smirked at her, and said, "See how well this works with explosive notes; you just have to be sure not to set them off with your chakra string after all. Plus, I want to see how well the notes are copied by the technique too!"

"Cool," Ryu nodded with a grin, "I'm in. Start with a few, and then see how many we can handle."

"Boys and explosions," Kasumi sighed; the blonde and brunette ignored her.

Almost thirty minutes later: _**BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!**_

_Training Area 11_

_Next Day_

The explosion was powerful enough to completely destroy the platform, big enough even that when the waters rushed in, it was as though the platform had never even existed. Thankfully, Team One had been blown clear, tossed up into the trees by the force and their training enabled them to stay conscious and aware enough that they were able to catch themselves before they really hit anything. They came off with scrapes and bruises as the worst of it.

Unfortunately, without the platform, the only stable footing were the trees and some questionable spots of dirt among the swamp water, and that was not sufficient for their training. So Hayato reported the damage as 'training accident in testing a new jutsu' to the Hokage, which happened at least a hundred times a day. He'd even tried to secure the repair work as a D-Rank mission, sort of a way of teaching his team the important lesson of 'actions have consequences', but the Hokage denied him, giving the job to "professionals that actually know what they're doing" instead of "well-meaning, but sloppy genin." Hayato accepted the judgment.

As a consolation prize, the Hokage gave him access to Area 11, which he'd used as location for Team One's Genin Test. Reps and Revolutions were no longer possible, but after more than three weeks of daily exercises, Hayato found that each of his genin could control their chakra as well as the exercise could possibly let them without taking it to the next level already. The only benefit they were getting out of it anymore was speed and endurance training now.

Besides, he realized as he met them right at 7 in the morning, they needed to work more on their physical skills and bringing them up to par. Their individual chakra control had reached an acceptable level, especially for ordinary genin.

Naruto was no longer wasting nearly so much chakra when he used ninjutsu anymore, and when he meant to make 10 or 100 clones, he made 10 or 100 clones respectively. Ryu's chakra reserves were increasing daily, and his control was exactly average for a ninja of his age and experience. Kasumi was the real prodigy when it came to chakra control. While she did not have nearly half as much chakra as her two teammates had, in comparison her control was practically perfect. What she did have, she maintained with precision deftness and did not let so much as a drop of chakra out that she did not mean to so that nothing was wasted. She still had some endurance issues, however.

Regardless, there was nothing more they could do to increase their individual chakra control any further without moving onto more advanced chakra control exercises that, quite frankly, they were not ready for. Even Naruto, with his monster reserves and chakra to burn, without more basic control under his belt he would never be able to pull off the more advanced exercises Hayato had in mind for them. Not to mention a certain amount of physical dexterity and endurance.

Today, Hayato had them split up and work on individual training. He approached Ryu and offered to help him in improving his _Izuna Otoshi_. With Kasumi, he walked her through a number of endurance enhancing exercises that would eventually help her increase her chakra levels.

Naruto, he approached last because he wanted to take the boy for a run. He'd seen that both Kasumi and Ryu received additional training from their families, and that their respective clans would help in defining what kind of ninja they became. Naruto had no clan, no family to say what kind of ninja he became. So Hayato decided to take that extra step beyond what a Jounin Sensei was _supposed_ to do as the minimum, and help the kid out, as a mentor.

"Naruto, how do you run?" he asked the blond.

"Huh?" Naruto was very confused by this seemingly odd question coming out of nowhere.

"It's a serious question," Hayato said. "Have you ever paid attention to the way your legs and body move when running, or did you just try and copy everybody else?"

Naruto blushed and shrugged sheepishly.

"That's all right. That's the way everyone starts. You should have been instructed in the 'shinobi run' since your first year at the Academy, however. Please run as fast as you can from here to that tree stump and back," Hayato pointed to a distant stump and then stood and watched as Naruto did as bid.

Once the boy had returned, Hayato considered his options. Most ninja only bothered learning one 'way' to run and it served all equally well as it combined a dash with a long-distance running style so that there was a maximum amount of force propelling the body forward with short, sharp, controlled strides to conserve energy. Hayato decided that Naruto had enough raw endurance that he could afford to learn multiple running styles and build up the appropriate muscles.

"That was good, Naruto," Hayato told him simply. "You might want to work on your stride. The leg isn't brought all the way up to the chest like you were doing there, it only goes to about the waist before going back down again. Here, let me show you." He then manhandled one of Naruto's nearby clones, positioning the body in a stationary pose that was identical to what Naruto looked like when he was running.

"Here, this is what you looked like when you're running," he showed the original. "This is what it's supposed to look like," he repositioned the legs so they weren't lifted so high, and the body could lean further forward without falling flat on his face. Naruto nodded in understanding, and then, without being told to do so, ran off using the jounin's advice.

In short order, he'd returned and had noticed the considerable difference with just a small correction.

"Good. Now then," Hayato said, "let's try something a little different. Tell me, when you're running, what muscles does it feel like your using the most?"

"Hm," Naruto considered, then answered, "Uh, these here," pointing to his thighs just above his knees.

"OK. This time, try using the muscles at the back of your thighs and calves. Also, remember to keep your ankles as 90 degrees to the rest of your leg. If you just kick against the ground, then you're just using the strength of your ankles and nothing else. When you fix your ankles at ninety degree angles, it will be like you're pushing against the ground with your entire foot. Go ahead and try it."

Naruto nodded and tried it out. He was a bit slow at first, slower than when he normally ran as he tried to get used to the new way of moving his feet. By the time he was turning back, though, it was at least equal to his normal running speed. Hayato nodded approvingly.

"Good, keep practicing that while I work with the others for a bit," he told him, then left.

Naruto grinned and turned to do exactly that, and started circling the clearing with his new running style.

The next morning, when Naruto woke up an hour before dawn, as had become his routine, he got up and dressed in his stereotypical black ninja outfit, complete with mask and hood. He'd taken to dressing up in this so he could practice and do some training in the mornings without being caught. Who knew wearing an orange jumpsuit at five thirty in the morning would be so offensive to some people?

He usually did his training just outside the walls of Konoha, sometimes in the trees, sometimes in a free training ground, sometimes on the rooftops. Today he decided to try out that new running style Hayato-sensei had taught him. He was pretty tired after only half an hour, the muscles on the back of his legs killing him.

He was about to head back to his apartment to get ready for the day, as well as a shower, just as the sun was coming up, when it happened. He met the two green beasts of Konoha, and suddenly found the strength to run even farther and faster than he had the day before using his new explosive dash. It didn't help that they both gave chase to him the whole way until he lost them by running straight up the wall, then back down the other side and into the city before they could follow.

He would never complain about doing Reps _ever _again!

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

The rest of the time and the following days, Hayato had them each create no less than one hundred shadow clones each, easy to do with enough applications of _Chakra Gattai_ for Ryu and Kasumi. While the clones worked, he took the originals and helped them with their own individual techniques, using a few shadow clones of his own.

He helped each of them with their _Shuriken/Kunai/Senbon Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ and their new combo jutsu pair, the _Mamori Arashi_ and _Inmetsu Nadare_. After teaching him how to run, he taught Naruto the _Shunshin no jutsu_, the hi-speed movement jutsu that most thought of as the ninja teleport technique. He also helped the blond in his shuriken throwing and other basic techniques.

With Kasumi, he further helped her on a number of endurance enhancing exercises that needed to be done daily, at the least, and helped her with a number of other skills. He also taught her the one medical ninjutsu that he knew and could use. In his hands, it was little better than sticking a band-aid on something, in some cases literally as he could heal small cuts and heal bruises faster on himself or one other person, but nothing much better than that. She was an eager student and was soon able to activate the ninjutsu, but it would take real training as a medic-nin for her to become truly skilled in using the _Shōsen no jutsu_ (Mystical Healing Palm technique).

Ryu was easy to help out. He just continued to help him in a few ways so he could improve his _Izuna Otoshi_ and a few others of his special attacks. Just to be thorough, he also showed the youth the same endurance-enhancing exercises he'd shown Kasumi and helped him with a couple of his _Katon_ techniques.

Now, they were doing much better and all things considered had a more rounded education than most genin probably ever got. They were training to be a Support Team, able to fit in with any other specialized group and compliment them in their missions. It was about time they got started on that, he believed.

Just as they were finishing up their morning exercises and getting close to the time when they normally went to the Hokage Tower for their morning missions, Hayato said to them, "All right, that's enough for today! I would like to discuss something with you."

They immediately stopped what they were doing, as well as stopped their clones and began dispelling them. When they came over, Kasumi asked him in her ever-polite cheerful tone, "What is it you would like to discuss, Hayato-sensei?"

"I've been planning to do this for a while, but it took me time to track down all the people that I needed permission from before we could actually start this portion of your training," he said. "Hence why I kept leaving you alone for so many hours a day for the past few weeks. Finally, shortly after we had to move to this training area, I got it OK'd by the Hokage. Today will be our first, of hopefully many, joint-missions."

"_Joint_-missions?" Ryu repeated.

"You didn't forget, did you? I'm training you lot to be the best Support Team of Konoha, able to meld with any specialty team the mission requires and not just not hold them back, but compliment them so that the mission is accomplished faster and easier than if you had not been there. Step one of this is to get you used to working with these other teams early on."

He waited to see their reactions, and was pleased that they had their 'briefing' faces on, meaning they were listening to his words and absorbing the information, holding their reactions until they fully understood the situation.

"So that is what we will be doing today," he informed his genin. "I'm not sure who we'll be teaming up with first, but unfortunately until you get more experience, you'll only be paired with the other rookie teams, specifically Teams 7, 8, 10, and the only team that is still in circulation from last year, Team Gai. I just thought you should be aware of this before we head off to receive our mission. Any questions?"

Immediately they all three raised their hands and asked at the same time, "It's not going to be the cat mission, is it?" Hayato laughed, then shrugged. It would depend on which team they worked with, he supposed.

(Play "Team Missions")

_Hokage Tower_

"Now then," the Hokage began, smiling at the young people gathered before him, "I understand that Kanzaki-san has gotten your agreement in this particular set of missions for today, Yuuhi-san?"

"He has, Hokage-sama," Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin Sensei to Team 8, replied respectfully. She was a tall, pale-skinned and beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair, and intense red-hued eyes. She wore a bandage-wrapping dress that came down to mid-thigh and had only one red sleeve on her right arm.

"Very well then," Sarutobi nodded his head and took a puff from his pipe. "I look forward to how this experiment turns out. I will expect full reports from everyone on the results from these specified missions. Speaking of which, I trust that our little arrangement is still on for tomorrow, Naruto?"

Naruto laughed and nodded his head, silently noting the intense look in the old man's eyes, as well as the jealous stares he got from his fellow genin. Finally, he just told the whole room, "Eh, the Old Man hates doing paperwork, so I have my shadow clones do it for him in exchange for him teaching me a new jutsu. Where do you guys think I learned those chakra control exercises Hayato-sensei wanted from us in the first place?"

"Damn," Ryu muttered, "And you're the only person in Konoha that can actually create more than ten clones at the same time and can be trusted not to care about anything on the paperwork... Double damn."

"Huh?! What the heck are you talking about?!" Kiba shouted at Ryu. Inuzuka Kiba, only son of the 'Alpha' of the Inuzuka clan, stood about even with Ryu, give or take a few inches, and wore a fur-lined dark gray coat, through the opening of which his dog-familiar Akamaru stuck his head out of. Kiba had brown hair, dark eyes and two tattooed 'fang' marks on each of his cheeks. Akamaru was a purebred Great Pyrenees, with mostly white fur and brown on his ears and back.

"We'll explain later," Kasumi smiled to calm the volatile Inuzuka down. She noticed the boy suddenly going red in the face, but he did quiet down.

"Very well then," the Hokage smiled as he handed four scrolls, two each to the Jounin Senseis. "I expect to see you all later this evening with all four missions completed and reports ready to turn in. The first one should be done as soon as possible. Tracking down the Fire Lord's Wife's cat, Tora."

All of the genin groaned out loud, Team One the loudest among them, Kiba second.

"Two of the others are optional, so long as they are completed before the end of the day, tracking down another lost pet, this one belonging to the grandson of one of the Clan Heads. A puppy, not a cat," he clarified to the relief of most there. "The other is walking the Inuzuka Clan dogs, those not assigned to an active ninja, as I understand it?" he looked to Kiba, who nodded.

"The last mission, I understand Hayato-san that you requested specifically for this team-up?" Sarutobi looked at the jounin, who nodded in turn. "Very well then, I leave that in yours and Kurenai-san's hands. Dismissed."

"HAI!" half the room, with two genin teams, shouted.

"Ano... K-Kurenai-sensei, we... we're teaming up w-with N-Naruto-kun's team?" a small, shy girl with navy blue hair whispered to the female jounin.

"Yes, we are," Kurenai stated, smiling down at her charge.

"Uh, hello, we're on the team too, y'know," Ryu, who was standing on the other side of Kurenai, said to them, waving his hand.

"Eep!" the pale-eyed girl squeaked, turning bright red and began blurting out half-mumbled apologies.

Ryu didn't really listen and waited until she paused to take a breath before waving off her apologies and said to her, "Don't worry about it. To be quite frank about it, I'm starting to wonder myself if it's me, Kasumi and Naruto on the same team, or me and Kasumi on Naruto's team."

"Ano... what do you mean, Ryu-san?" the girl asked.

"My, someone knows my name," Ryu smirked roguishly at her, "Might I have the favor in return?"

She turned bright red and started twiddling with her fingers, "Uh, um, ano... Hi... Hyuuga Hinata," she finally mumbled with her face pointed towards the ground.

"Hyuuga-sama," Ryu teasingly bowed to her. Kurenai almost bust a gut trying to keep her laughter in.

"..." Hinata almost squeaked again, but she was blushing too much to bother.

"Hey Ryu, you should know better than that," Naruto came up on Hinata's other side. "Hinata-chan was one of the few people that was quiet in class, but even I know that she doesn't like being called 'Hyuuga-sama'. Remember that day one of the instructors called her that?"

Ryu blinked in surprise, as did almost everyone in hearing range at that moment. Hinata, on the other hand practically froze, turning a pale color associated with toilets more than anything else. Only Kurenai's grip on her shoulder and that they were walking out of the tower kept the poor girl moving.

"Huh? Oh, wait, yeah, I do remember that." Ryu suddenly laughed. "Wasn't that the same guy that you later pranked with the water-balloon barrage?"

"Why do you think I did that?" Naruto shrugged, oblivious to the reactions of the girl next to him was having to his words. "Like I said, Hinata-chan was always a quiet, weird girl, and that bastard made her cry. No offense, Hinata-chan," he said directly to the girl in front of him.

"..." she was still practically frozen, but now her cheeks were a soft pink. She mustered her courage, and asked in a quiet and very soft voice, almost as though she were afraid of the answer, "Ano... y-you-you think I'm weird, N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto blinked wide-eyed and innocently at her, then bluntly told her, "Yeah."

Everyone around sweat-dropped.

"I mean, you're real quiet, you're always turning red, then pale, and fainting and stuff. Makes me think you might be sick or something, but here you are, a ninja, and I know how hard that is, and it's even harder for someone who's sick all the time. So yeah, you're definitely weird."

Hinata felt like dropping to the center of the earth and being consumed by the void.

"But I like you too," Naruto said.

Hinata was in Heaven.

"You're nice, and don't give up obviously, otherwise you wouldn't be a ninja right now. I can respect that. Plus, Kasumi-chan told me to come talk to you, said something about getting you over something? I think she said crash or crush or something. Do you know what she meant?"

Hinata had fainted ten steps back and was currently being held up by Kurenai, who quickly assured a suddenly overwrought Naruto that Hinata was just fine, she'd only fainted and would be back on her feet soon.

At the rear, Kasumi sighed and rolled her eyes skyward. "Can you believe those two?" she asked the boy next to her. He was a little taller than herself, had spiky black hair, wore pitch black sunglasses and a high-collared jacket and dark brown pants. The only parts of his skin visible at the moment was the upper half oh his face in fact.

"... I've gotten used to it," Aburame Shino, heir of the Aburame Clan replied to the Mugen Tenshin Clan Princess's question.

"And Kiba-san?" she pointed to the dog and his boy in the lead, just behind Hayato. Ever since they'd left the Tower, the boy had been stealing back glances at her every few steps.

"... This is the quietest I have ever seen him. Ever," Shino told her.

"Should I be worried?" she asked, smiling at the young Aburame.

"... That would depend..."

"Hm, good point."

Up front, where Hayato was leading the group to pick up the radios for their first mission, Kurenai stepped forward to walk beside him and casually asked, "So, you're serious about turning your team into a 'Jack of all trades' team? You know what they say."

"Yeah, yeah," he chuckled, speaking low so only she would hear him, "Jack of all trades, master of none. Thing is, I'm not turning them into a 'Jack of all trades' team. I'm doing my damnedest to turn them into a 'Master of Teamwork' team. Answer me this, Kurenai-san, how often does your team complain about doing D-Rank missions and whine about wanting to do something more important?"

"Practically every day, and I give them the same explanation every time," she answered. "Why? How often do yours complain?"

"They don't," he stated plainly.

"What?"

He could see she was genuinely stunned by his answer. She must have been _very_ surprised. After all, she was known as the Ice Queen of Konoha among most of the eligible bachelors, ninja or otherwise.

"They complained the first day. After I let them handle their first mission by themselves without me there to guide them, they stopped, only asking to never have the 'Cat Mission' again."

"You mean the one we're on?" she remarked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"The same," he grinned sadistically. "But then, I also give them briefings before and after each mission, telling them to treat D-Ranks less as paid chores and more as _training missions_. So far their favorites have been Grocery shopping and Temporary Courier type missions. You know, delivering messages, or products for vendors that can't deliver their goods for whatever reason, things like that."

"Why?" she was surprised yet again.

"Because I tell them that they'll have real missions where they're carrying vital documents, or goods, or other artifacts that are even more important than someone's food or something that's been paid for and needs to be delivered by that afternoon. Then I tell them to play both sides," he explained.

"Both sides?" she questioned.

"The defenders and the attackers," he chuckled, then went on to explain how all of them could use the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_, alongside other _bunshin_ jutsu. He had Kurenai giggling by the time they reached the equipment storage, and thinking of how she could further motivate her own team as well.

_Later That Afternoon_

The Cat Mission went off without a hitch, this time. It seems that in addition to someone (else) putting a powerful chakra marker on the Fire Lord's Wife's cat's collar, Shino had placed one of his tracker bugs on it and between Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru, they flushed Tora out from hiding and into Hinata's arms within half an hour. Apparently the animal liked the quiet girl and jumped into her arms the moment the cat saw her.

They chose to find the other lost pet sooner rather than later, and Team Eight was very impressed when Naruto created over a hundred shadow clones to spread out looking for the animal. Team One chose not to reveal their _Chakra Gattai_ jutsu just yet, even if additional searching eyes would've helped. In the end, it came down to Kiba and Akamaru, using scents gathered from the pet's leash to track it down. Although it did take the entire group, Kurenai and Hayato included to finally restrain the 'puppy', which actually turned out to be a three and a half foot long BULL DOG!

It took a few minutes, and a number of Naruto's shadow clones being bitten to 'death', but they finally calmed it down when Akamaru 'spoke' to the pet and 'explained' the situation. Afterward the bull dog came with them peacefully and gave them no further trouble.

There was another bit of trouble when the grandchild confused Akamaru for his 'Buddy', but thankfully it was sorted out by the child's parents. Then it was lunchtime, so Kurenai and Hayato treated them to a restaurant meal at a place called "Moritake's" letting the two teams spend some time getting to know each other.

For some reason, practically everyone but Kiba (and Akamaru) insisted that Naruto and Hinata sit next to each other, and then spent the rest of the time glancing at either the blushing Hyuuga or the wide-eyed oblivious Uzumaki, trying to restrain their laughter. Kiba was too interested in proving he was the top dog, and saw Ryu as a challenge to that, so spent a lot of time glaring at the black-clad genin and bragging loudly about his and Akamaru's partnership. Ryu mostly ignored him, except when he got really loud, then he pointed Kasumi at Akamaru and watched as Kiba went as red as Hinata and oddly quiet all of a sudden. Akamaru was a puddle of mush in Kasumi's hands, especially when she started to rub his belly.

After lunch, Kiba led them to the Inuzuka Clan compound and introduced the combined team to his older sister Hana, a chuunin who specialized as a veterinarian. She showed them the pack of dogs that needed walking that day, all of whom were restless and more than ready to go. Still, despite both Kiba's and Hana's warnings, less than three minutes after they were on the walk, the dogs got away from them and they spent the next two hours tracking each of them down. Here, Hinata and Naruto were the real strength as Hinata could find them from a distance and Naruto could create more than enough manpower to wrestle all of the nindogs back in. It might have gone faster, but every time the pair brought in another dog, Naruto couldn't help complimenting Hinata on her skills and she, of course, fainted and needed a minute to revive.

Finally, they'd completed their first three missions and it was only the middle of the afternoon. They went to Training Area 8, Team Eight's usual meeting spot, a training ground in the middle of the woods with multiple hidden long-range targets. There, Hayato and Kurenai briefed them on their final mission of the day.

"All right, listen up!" Hayato snapped at them, all six pre-teens silencing immediately.

Kurenai shot a glare at her fellow rookie Jounin Sensei, then smiled warmly at them and said, "You've all done an excellent job today. You've all demonstrated how well you can work together on different types of missions and your strength as shinobi of Konoha."

"Doesn't mean you're perfect, there is still a _lot_ to work on," Hayato interrupted.

Team Eight, used to Kurenai's soft, but strict hand, was thrown completely off-guard by Hayato's blunt fist approach. Hinata looked downwards, crestfallen. Shino stiffened at the indication that his performance was anything less than perfect as he demanded of himself. Kiba growled and clenched his fists, angry at being challenged. Team One, on the other hand, was quite used to the harsh criticism of their Jounin Sensei. So much so, in fact, that Kurenai's complimenting of them was starting to creep them out.

"Oh yeah...!" Kiba started to shout, but a slim, delicate hand on his shoulder instantly had him flushed and silent.

"In what ways, sensei?" Kasumi asked him, keeping her hand on Kiba's shoulder for a second more.

"Yeah?" Naruto piped up. "I thought Hinata-chan and I rocked!"

"The dogs should never have run off in the first place," Hayato snapped at the blond.

"And whose fault was that, huh?" Kiba snarled.

Grumbling to himself, Ryu sighed heavily and raised his hand reluctantly and answered, "Mine. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. The dogs I was holding were the first ones loose and they got the others going. I should have listened to both Kiba and Hana-sempai more closely. Rule #12, always listen to those with more experience."

"Where else did you screw up?" Hayato crossed his arms.

"Hayato!" Kurenai snapped at him.

Blushing, Naruto raised his hand and admitted, "I shouldn't have run off and created all those extra clones. It wasted chakra, and in hostile territory, it might have alerted enemies of our presence or our intentions when we wouldn't want them to know we're there. I should have just waited for all of us to come up with an agreeable plan and saved my energy, trusting Shino and his bugs more than myself."

"Close, very close," Hayato told them.

"... I should have announced our method for tracking down the Fire Lord's Wife's cat much sooner, and worked out a more decent strategy we all could have agreed on beforehand," Shino admitted.

"Well I did everything right! There's no way you're getting me to admit to failure! Besides, we completed all those missions in record time!" Kiba shouted out loud.

"Actually, Kiba," Kurenai sighed, "as I recall, it was you who attacked the bulldog first, and it was Akamaru, without any prompting from you, in fact despite of you, that managed to calm the dog down enough for us to return him to his owner."

Kiba immediately turned a much brighter red than any shade he'd been yet today, scratching his neck in shame, while Akamaru 'sympathetically' patted his human with a free paw.

"Kasumi and Hinata both did splendidly," Hayato pronounced. "Things could have been much worse without both of them there, as Kasumi kept the team cohesion united, and Hinata was there to help clean up the messes the rest of you made. Good job you two."

Both kunoichi flushed a bright red, nearly overwhelmed from the praise. Though for different reasons. Hinata, quite simply was not at all used to being complimented and any and all praise was nearly overwhelming for her abused soul. Kasumi was used to being complimented, called a genius, beautiful, and an excellent kunoichi, but she also knew that Hayato gave out those compliments very rarely and if he said anything like 'Good job', it was praise of the highest regards, on par with a special award from the Hokage even!

"But for this next mission," Hayato broke up their parade, "every single one of you need to be no less than perfect. Team Eight needs to be at the top of their game, better than even. Team One, you need to be remembering everything you know about tracking, spying and espionage, whether I taught it to you or not."

"While a little over-dramatic, in my opinion," Kurenai shot a side-long look at Hayato, "Hayato-san is correct. Our next mission is a step up from everything we've been doing so far. It's still a D-Rank mission, but what we're looking for is so incredibly rare that even we jounin would have trouble completing this mission within the remaining time limit."

"Well, come on, what's the mission?" Kiba impatiently demanded.

"Think of it as a scavenger hunt," Hayato chuckled in that way that sent chills down the genins spines.

Kurenai shot him another look, then explained. "We have to find six very unique items and then a seventh, and report back to the Tower before sunset tonight, which is in about four hours, by my judgment."

"... What are these items?" Shino questioned.

Hayato pulled out a scroll and handed it to Kurenai. She opened it and read off, "A flower, a stone, a weapon, an insect, an herb, a flask of water, and the last item is a certificate verifying each item is authentic and not a forgery or a fake."

"You're kidding, right?" Ryu deadpanned after a heavy silence.

"The flower is the rare Death Blossom Orchid," Kurenai stated. "The stone must be an obsidian opal of a certain quality, found only here in the Fire Nation. The weapon is the lost dagger of the First Hokage, supposedly dropped atop the Hokage monument when the First created the forests of Konoha. There have apparently been rumors of civilians reporting to have seen it stuck in the side of the monument. The insect is a rare breed of fly, one reported to be useful for the breeding of other insects and the pollination of flowers."

Shino stiffened at that, apparently knowing exactly what insect his Jounin Sensei was referring to.

Hayato took over saying, "The herb is a very rare root that only grows in certain areas around Konoha and has unique qualities that make it valuable as a medicinal herb. And the flask of water can't be just any water, but it must be water from a fountain that only lasts for ten minutes, springing up at random between the river and the mountain. Usually so far away from each other that unless we're really lucky, will take more than ten minutes to find it and get to it."

"This is a true test of your skills as a reconnaissance team," Kurenai informed them.

"Especially when you consider that we have to go to a very distant hermit to get all of these items verified as genuine and back to the Tower before sunset," Hayato added.

"Uh... hold on for one minute, please," Naruto raised his hand, then created a single shadow clone who ran off at top speed. Since the clone switched back to 'civilian' clothing, aka the orange jumpsuit, that was much faster than he was in his tiger-themed ninja armored 'work' clothes.

"Naruto, what are you...?" Kurenai started to ask, but stopped when Kasumi raised her hand as well.

"Uhm, well, I'm not really going to bother explaining this," she finally said, blushing slightly, then pulled out of her equipment pouch a small multi-hued gemstone. It was an obsidian opal.

"Ano..." Hinata was also digging around in her equipment and finally pulled out a small bag with sealed herbs inside it. Specifically the herbs that were described on the mission sheet. "I... like to make medicines."

The jounin both blinked in surprise, but that wasn't anything compared to when Naruto's clone came back a minute later with a sheathed dagger in his hands. The symbol on the sheath and the hilt of the blade were that of the Senju Clan, the Clan of the First and Second Hokages. Next to the one on the hilt was another symbol, a Konoha Leaf on a spiraling tree.

"Heh, I, uh, found it a few weeks ago and I've been using it as a kitchen knife, after I cleaned it up a bit," Naruto told them, blushing a bright red and scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"..." Kurenai and Hayato were both stunned. Hayato just as much as Kurenai, and since he'd gotten to know Naruto for over a month now, that was saying something.

"... I know where to search for the insect in question. I only require someone who can either stun it or capture it to come with me," Shino informed the adults, looking expectantly at Kurenai.

"Kasumi, how are you doing on that Suiton jutsu you showed me the other day?" Hayato asked her.

Kasumi blinked, surprised at being put on the spot like that, but merely nodded and replied, "I followed your advice and saw almost instant improvement. I... tried it several different ways and I believe I'm confident enough that I can use it in the field if necessary."

"What Suiton jutsu?" Kurenai inquired.

"_Suiton: Mizuame Nabara no jutsu_ (Water Release: Syrup Capture Field technique)," Hayato calmly informed her.

The jounin kunoichi raised her eyebrows, saying, "I'm impressed."

"Thank you," Kasumi nodded her head.

"I... kind of know where we can find this spring, at least the general area," Ryu told them, "But having Akamaru... and Kiba's noses would help in tracking it down faster, I suppose."

"I'll go with you two," Hayato nodded. "Shino, Kasumi, go get the bug. Kurenai, I'm sure you know exactly which fields the Death Blossom Orchid grows in where we're allowed to pick it. Why don't you take Hinata and Naruto with you. In fact, why don't we all take Naruto with us.

"Good idea," Ryu, Kasumi, and Hinata all spoke as one, the latter a surprise, but no less firm in regard.

"Huh?" Kiba blurted out, confused, "How can _all_ of us take Naruto along, if we're going in different directions? There's no way he can go with each group, unless we all go together, but that kind of defeats the purpose of splitting up, if you ask me!"

"Nobody did," Ryu said, under his breath.

"I, too, am curious as to how one person may accompany each group at the same time, and what purpose would it serve to have Uzumaki-san on each division," Shino inquired.

"Back-up," Hayato, Kasumi and Ryu all stated plainly at the same time.

"I don't understand," Kurenai admitted, looking between each of the members of Team One and Naruto.

"You will," Hayato chuckled. "Meanwhile, I'm not going to brag about it. Let's get going, shall we?"

"Meet at the Hermit's place the minute you have what you're looking for," Kurenai told them, while glaring at Hayato with a 'You better explain this, soon!' and only receiving a 'Go with it' look in reply.

"Naruto," Hayato gestured for the boy, and the blond genin immediately produced close to a hundred shadow clones, who split off in groups of twenty-five to go with each group.

"Oh," Kiba's face fell as the point finally sunk in.

"... I will not require Uzumaki-san's assistance," Shino stated firmly, looking to be stubborn all of a sudden. Kasumi recognized that in him, then nodded and turned to their group of Naruto-clones.

"Naruto, boys," she got their attention, "Stay back at least twenty feet from us, and always stay behind us. Shino-san needs to draw our target to us, and if you're making a lot of noise and getting in the way, that will only hinder our mission. Understand?"

"Roger!" they all saluted the kunoichi.

"... How did you do that?" Shino asked, surprised, and even more so when the clones proved they could be genuinely stealthy when they wanted to be.

"Do what?" Kasumi looked at him, confused.

"..." Shino turned to lead them to their destination. The others had already left.

(Pause "Team Missions")

_One Hour Later_

Thanks to the jounin passing out maps with their rendezvous point, everyone met up at the correct spot, a little ramshackle cabin on the far side of the mountain, just at the edge of Konoha's boundary. Shino and Kasumi had searched for all of ten minutes, Shino using a special jutsu that called other insects to him, before they found the right bug and one of the Naruto clones turned itself into an insect cage for them to carry it in after they'd collected it. Kurenai, Hinata and Naruto had to go a ways from where they'd started and the jounin insisted upon gathering the correct equipment to use in collecting the plant and were on their way to the shack after only half an hour. What took the longest, unfortunately, was Hayato, Kiba and Ryu with their group of Naruto's.

The spring did burst forth in the area Ryu lead them to, but Kiba and Akamaru kept leading them to spots where the spring had _been_, not where it was going to be. Finally they just had everybody spread out as far as they could and thanks to the Naruto clones they managed to get a few flasks of the spring water. They kept them all, just to be sure.

In the cabin they met a kindly old woman and her irritable old husband. Unfortunately they were there to see the husband and spent a solid fifteen minutes arguing over this and that and just explaining what eight ninja were doing there in the first place. Finally they just showed him the mission scroll and he had a look on his face that matched with what he said upon seeing the scroll, "Oooooohhhhhhhhhh... One of _those_ missions. OK, let me see what you've got." He only glanced at each item before pulling out a dusty stamping set and spent another five minutes wetting the ink and slowly stamping his approval that each item was genuine.

They reported back to the Hokage Tower with a little over two hours to spare, mission accomplished.

Afterward, the two teams decided to unwind together after the long day, and Kurenai treated them all to a restaurant dinner at the same café. Hayato thanked her and begged off, telling his team to go ahead, but also to meet him at Training Area 11 at the same 7 o'clock time the next morning. He then went off and tracked down Sarutobi Asuma, Jounin Sensei to Team Ten.

At Moritake's, Naruto and Hinata were put side-by-side yet again, but this time Naruto did not mind in the slightest, in fact as he gushed about how "awesome" Hinata-chan was that day during their missions, he was quite enthusiastic about it.

"And then she pointed almost right behind her and warned one of my clones he was about to step on a plant that we'd been warned not to touch! It was so cool!" Naruto exclaimed.

Hinata was as red as strawberries in summer, she was so embarrassed, and yet unimaginably pleased and content all at once as Naruto continued to praise her. She still didn't think she deserved it, and she knew Naruto was never cruel to anyone. Still... she also knew that he did not lie, and when he did he did not do it very well at all. And he was not lying as he praised her, she could tell, so... did that mean that Naruto-kun... _liked_ her?!

Kasumi and a couple of the others at their table were starting to wonder how the Hyuuga girl could stand to have that much blood running to her face like that and still have enough left over to pump through her veins. It was _more_ than obvious that the Hyuuga heiress had a major league crush on the blue-eyed blond genin. Unfortunately for the girl that had privately labeled herself as Naruto's Big Sister, this also demonstrated just how socially inept Naruto was, most likely because he barely had any friends growing up, and no family to guide him in proper behavior or to explain other people's behavior to him.

It almost pained her as she watched Naruto talk about all the things they'd done that day, praising Hinata, herself, and Shino, while bragging about his own deeds and sparking friendly rivalry with Ryu and Kiba. All the things that she remembered doing with her _family_ when she was still growing up, talking about her day, describing the fun she'd had and arguing over the littlest things with Ayane or one of the other girls at the Academy. She smiled and laughed along with the rest as Naruto and Kiba started a 'bragging war' and it seemed that Akamaru kept coming out on top despite all their arguments.

Silently, amidst all the cheer and good times, she resolved that she would _make_ this team Naruto's family. He was the reason she was a shinobi. He was the reason she and Ryu were here. He deserved to have a family of his own at the _very_ least.

Ryu was getting just as into the impromptu party as much as Naruto and Kiba were. He still caught Kasumi getting teary eyed watching Naruto and the blushing Hinata. He'd been childhood friends with Kasumi since they were both just learning to talk, so he knew a few things about her moods and her way of thinking. It was just as obvious to him as it was to everyone that Hinata was crushing on his blond teammate and said teammate was completely oblivious to the fact.

For a few frightful seconds, Ryu had the disturbing notion that Kasumi was also falling for the dumb blond, except that wasn't like her first of all, and second of all those weren't 'I've lost him' tears, more 'I Will Protect This!' tears. It didn't take him long to figure out that his life-long friend had just claimed the third genius on their team as her Official Little Brother.

He was genuinely surprised when he felt relief after realizing that.

Could he...? Nah! This was Kasumi-hime for crying out loud! How could he possibly... Oh Kami.

Ryu stopped laughing suddenly and his eyes went wide. He immediately and intentionally focused all of his attention on eating his food right then. He could not let _anyone_ know what he was thinking until he could better control himself! He... he just couldn't!

Because it would almost be worse than death... no, it _would_ be worse than death if anyone found out that he... well, let's not go too far, he was too young for... _that_ yet! But still, he could feel it vibrate throughout his entire being, even as he sat their and avoided looking at her at all.

He liked Kasumi.

He _liked_ liked Tenshin Kasumi, heiress to the Mugen Tenshin Clan!

He was so screwed.

After dinner, Kurenai sent all the genin off to make their own ways home as she went off on her own, officially off-duty now, and needing some alone time after spending the day with six young adults that were still more children than teenager. Thankfully.

They all hung around for a bit, Kiba trying to still prove himself against Naruto and Ryu, the both of them eagerly and easily falling into the friendly bickering, Shino and Kasumi having a conversation concerning clan politics and gossip. Hinata was silently standing off to the side, congratulating herself on not fainting even once during dinner. Akamaru was cleaning himself while the humans argued and talked.

Finally, it was getting late and those with homes to return to finally noticed the time and had to excuse themselves. Shino was the first to depart, and while the others still walked along together for another few streets, eventually Kiba, Kasumi, and Ryu also had to start heading home. Naruto and Hinata were only ones that did not seem to want to go home. Kasumi immediately caught onto this and casually suggested that Naruto 'escort' Hinata back home, just to be polite.

Kiba tried to offer to do the same for Kasumi, but Ryu then pointed out that she and himself were practically neighbors, while the Inuzuka clan compound was practically on the other side of the district and would be out of his way.

"Besides, don't you have to walk Akamaru... home?" Ryu teased as a parting shot.

Kiba growled, but a whine from Akamaru reminded him of his responsibilities and he and the puppy left, grumbling under his breath, hands in his pockets.

"Now I understand the phrase, 'send them home with their tails tucked between their legs'," Ryu laughed once Kiba was a fair distance down the street.

"I HEARD THAT!!" the Inuzuka boy screamed back, but kept walking.

"So, uh, Hinata-chan, uh... where do you live?" Naruto asked.

Practically everybody in hearing range face-faulted and sweat-dropped. It was kind of obvious where the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan lived.

"Ano... I can show you, i-if-if you'd like N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said shyly, blushing.

"Great!" he said, relieved. "Lead the way!"

Kasumi and Ryu both sighed, putting their heads in their hands in exasperation. Looks like they'll need more help than usual, they both decided.

Ryu was suddenly just behind Naruto, whispering silently into his ear. "Give her your arm, _idiot_!"

"Huh?" Naruto glanced back and forth between him and Hinata for a couple seconds, not knowing what Ryu was talking about. Give her his arm? How was he supposed to do that without cutting it off?

"Here, like this," he whispered, and then was suddenly by Kasumi's side, saying, "Well then, Kasumi-hime, shall we be off then?"

"Yes, thank you," she smiled knowingly and took his offered arm by the elbow, gently with both hands.

Ryu looked back and winked at Naruto, the gestured with his head at Hinata.

Gulping, Naruto was starting to catch on that this was a thing that _couples_ did, when on a date. But he and Hinata weren't on a _date_! Still, he couldn't help blushing as he stood before the red-faced girl, then held out his arm as Ryu had done, but he was completely clueless about what to do next. "Uh... here?" he shrugged, blushing almost as red as Hinata was.

"Ano..." Hinata, if it were even possible turned even redder knowing what Naruto was asking of her, but she was just too shy and overwhelmed by his presence to do anything but look down and twiddle her fingers.

"D'oh! _Idiot_!" Ryu hissed, and then was suddenly behind Naruto again. "Not like that!"

Kasumi, just as instantly, was behind Hinata, whispering, "Take his arm by the elbow, then say thank you. Don't think about it, don't think about what it means, don't think about anything at all. _Just do it_!" she hissed right in the poor girl's ear.

"Say this," Ryu whispered directly into the blond's ear what he wanted him to say.

"Uh, Hinata-chan," Naruto was blushing even more by now, still holding his arm out, "uh, if-if you would d-do me the honor of a-allowing me t-to escort you home? Please?"

Kasumi shot Ryu a look over the heads of the two pre-teens. He shrugged back, as though he were saying, 'Hey, it never hurts.' Frowning, she sighed, then poked Hinata in the back when the girl took too long.

"Th-thank you, N-Naruto-kun," the blushing heiress whispered, then stepped forward and finally took the offered arm by the elbow with both hands. They trembled until Naruto spontaneously brought up his other hand and patted her trembling hands and he smiled at her. He was still blushing like mad, but this smile was not the usual over-enthusiastic-happy-go-lucky grin he showed all the time. This was a small, private smile, only for Hinata that seemed to say, 'You're doing good. I'm here and I support you.'

Her trembling stopped after that.

Kasumi and Ryu followed along behind each of them until they finally had to part ways, sometimes offering advice, but mostly just hanging back and smiling and cooing like over-enthusiastic chaperones. After they left, both couples were silent in their walks, but for very different reasons. Naruto and Hinata were both feeling embarrassment at their situation and didn't know how to break the tension. But the company and their arms intertwined felt too good to separate, so they didn't.

Tenshin and Hayabusa, however, felt a very different kind of tension between them. Kasumi was concentrating on Naruto's life, as she understood it, so far and how she could begin to change it around, but also how her own big brother would respond to the idea of her 'adopting' a 'younger brother' into the clan. She wouldn't really go that far, but it was one of the ideas that popped into her head. Ryu was freaking out over the fact that he was attracted to Kasumi and wondering if she knew or suspected and all sorts of teenage feelings. He really, really hated this part of growing up, he reflected.

Once they'd gotten to their individual clan compounds, they were immediately drafted by said clans into 'family training', and after that went straight to bed.

At the entrance to the Hyuuga Clan compound, however, a very different scene played out.

"Oh yeah, I remember this place!" Naruto exclaimed once he finally recognized the 'gate' marking the entrance to the Hyuuga Clan residence. "Used to play a lot of pranks on the old fogies that lived here."

Hinata giggled softly, remembering those days when the most common curse on the lips of the Hyuuga elders wasn't that their Heiress was a disappointment, but 'that Uzumaki brat' and other names that should not be spoken around children.

"Well, I'll see you around, Hinata-chan," Naruto told her, looking into her pale-lavender eyes.

She nodded, reluctant to let go of his arm, but finally she knew she had to and stepped back from the boy who was her personal hero, even if no one else in the entire world agreed with her, and said to him, "Good night, Naruto-kun. I hope you have a pleasant evening."

He smiled brightly, much like his everyday grin, but there was something more to this smile, something genuine about it. "Thanks, Hinata-chan," he replied. "I hope you have a good night too. Do your best!"

She smiled wide, blushing with pleasure and nodded with a quick, "Hai!"

Naruto left, Hinata went inside, and neither one of them paid a scrap of attention to the two Hyuuga branch-member guards standing less than five feet away, nor Hinata's father just outside the main building on the front porch with his Byakugan active. Hinata skipped right past him, humming an old song to herself.

"... I'm not sure whether to kill that gaki, just threaten him, or thank him," Hyuuga Hiashi finally admitted to himself out loud. A nearby branch-member barely covered up their laughter in time, so it came out as a snort. Hiashi glanced at the covered Hyuuga only once, before cracking a very, very brief smile and walked inside, reconsidering several long-held opinions about the Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. No, Uzumaki Naruto.

Hanabi wondered just what had put her normally depressive sister in such a good mood. It was weird.

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

(Play "Team Mission")

_Next Day_

_Hokage Tower_

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed.

"_FOUR_! FOUR missions?!" Ino near-screamed.

"*munch* When are we *crunch* going to have time *swallow* *crunch* for eating?" Choji said as he snacked on a bag of pork rinds.

Team Ten and Team One had just received their missions for the day, an equal number that Team One and Team Eight had the day before, but apparently this was an unprecedented amount of missions per day for Team Ten, which contained Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino, under their Jounin Sensei, Sarutobi Asuma.

"It's not that bad," Kasumi tried to comfort the distraught kunoichi. "We normally do six or seven missions a day on our own. I think they're taking it easy on us since we're combining our teams and have to get used to a new team dynamic."

Ino stared bug-eyed at the chestnut-haired girl.

"You're kidding, right? Right?! There's no way that you guys could complete _seven_ missions in one day! That's impossible! Especially with the class clown and dead last on your team!" Ino shrieked.

Team One, in an odd display of synchronicity, blinked at the girl's outburst. Naruto felt a little depressed at being reminded of his failures. Hayato was rather surprised at being reminded of the same, as apparently the boy excelled outside of the classroom and was, in his opinion as Jounin Sensei, the glue holding his team together. Ryu was only a single word from attacking the girl outright, seriously ticked at having his friend being called the dead last, even if it was true. The one that was really close to losing their temper, however, was Kasumi. She regarded the Yamanaka with a shinobi's eye, determining threat, skill, and how easy it would be to kill her fellow genin with the minimum amount of effort.

Shikamaru sighed, then turned to Asuma and asked, "So, what's the first mission, already? Let's get this over with. You know how Ino can get..."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!!" Ino rounded on the Nara boy in a rage.

"Ino, calm down," Asuma waved at her to cool it, though he had taken a step back before saying anything. "Alright Shikamaru, here are our missions for today; Catch the Fire Lady's pet Tora..."

Team One all groaned out loud, Ryu asking how the woman could lose her cat _again_ when they'd just retrieved it for her yesterday! Asuma continued after the brief interruption was over with.

"Uh, then do some yard work for my... uh, I mean for the Hokage's family estate. Next we are scheduled to take the afternoon shift at the shinobi retirement home, and finally, there seems to have been a few break-outs from the veterinarian's office and we have to find and capture all of the animals before the end of the day. Some of them are ninja familiars, and are to be considered rather dangerous if provoked."

"Now," Hayato spoke up, after Asuma was done, "are we all going to rush off and repeat several mistakes from yesterday?"

"No sensei," his genin dutifully replied.

"First things first, sit down and make a plan," Naruto answered.

"Then we discuss it to ensure everyone understands their role," Ryu continued.

"_Then_ we go and complete our missions," Kasumi finished with a smile.

"Now then," Hayato said with a smile and a nod, "Given how late it is, and we have to be at the retirement home in a few hours anyway, why don't we make our plans over a nice barbeque lunch?"

"YES!" Choji immediately agreed. Asuma sighed and started to pull out his wallet.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Asuma-senpai," Hayato waved off the man's intentions. "I made a small arrangement with the Hokage before setting up this little team-up. So long as we complete all our missions before sunset, the Hokage's office will be taking care of our combined teams expenses for as long as we're teamed up. This includes lunches, equipment, just about anything within reason."

"So this means..." Asuma trailed off, his eyes going wide.

"ALL WE CAN EAT!!" Choji shouted to the heavens.

"_IF_," Hayato snapped out with a bit of Killing Intent to make sure his words would be effective, "_If_ we complete _all_ our missions before sunset. Otherwise... the mission payments will be used to cover those expenses and both teams will forfeit their payments for all of their next few missions to pay back whatever amount that may be."

"In other words," Shikamaru grumbled, "we can have an all-we-can-eat buffet and draw on as many reasonable resources to aid in our missions as we'd like, but if we don't report a success on all four missions before sunset today... we won't have enough money to even pay for our daily barbeque lunches for the next month, or two. Troublesome."

Choji went drastically pale, before his eyes lit up with blazing fire, and screamed out loud, "THERE'S NO TIME TO WASTE THEN! The glorious all-we-can-eat barbeque buffet will have to wait! No barbeque for an entire month or more is completely unbearable! LET'S GO!"

"Wow, didn't take much to get him motivated," Ryu dryly commented.

"Never does," Ino replied.

After a few minutes of talking on which mission they should tackle first, Shikamaru sighed and asked, "I don't suppose we have ways of tracking these missing animals, do we?"

"Each animal has a unique chakra marker attached to it in some means," Hayato informed him.

Shikamaru frowned, and asked, "How does this help us?"

"My team can sense those chakra markers and track them to their source," he answered.

"And our time at the retirement home has already been scheduled?" the boy asked, to which both jounin nodded in the affirmative.

"..." Shikamaru was silent for a moment, then brought his hands together, fingertips touching and palms upraised. Asuma looked at his pupil with upraised eyes, while Choji and Ino both looked to their teammate expectantly. After a couple minutes, Shikamaru stood up, his hands back behind his head as he looked up at the clouds.

"Well, I suppose we could take care of that yard work first. Catching the cat and the other escaped animals might as well be done all at once, and Choji really wants that extra large meal, and we'll need him at full strength for catching those animals. So how about we get the boring stuff out of the way, rest and eat, then catch all those animals?"

"... You needed to analyze every detail of the day to come up with that?" Hayato asked the young genius point-blank, surprising the rest of Team Ten, as few knew what Shikamaru's 'pose' was really all about.

"No, I already figured that Ryu, Choji, and Naruto will take care of the grass-cutting, weeding, and general clean-up while Ino and Kasumi will be straightening up the flower arrangements and you two will help move anything that we can't handle. I was hoping to watch the clouds, but I already figured you wouldn't let me, so I'll be helping with the weeding. That gives us one hour, forty-three minutes and fifty-six seconds to get to the BBQ restaurant, let Choji eat at his own table while we eat our fill, then spend two hours listening to retired shinobi talk at us, and I can play a couple of the ones I haven't beaten yet in shogi. That leaves us with five hours of daylight to track down each tagged animal, capture them, and return them all to the shelter and Fire Lord's wife respectively. It'll be tight, but we'll just make it unless someone does something stupid..."

"Naruto can use shadow clones," Ryu pointed out.

"I know," Shikamaru sighed, still looking up at the sky.

"So can we," Kasumi added.

If they were hoping for a reaction, they didn't get it. The black-haired genin continued staring at the sky, seemingly done with the conversation by this point. They let out a collective sigh and let Asuma lead them to the Sarutobi estate. They spent the rest of the morning doing yard work, and were finished with compliments from Asuma's aunt with exactly as much time as Shikamaru had mentioned before they had to be at the retirement home.

Speaking of which, it was actually a lot more fun than they would have thought at first. At least it was for Shikamaru and Team One. Ino and Choji seemed to think it was a 'gross' mission, and mostly sat around with nothing to do, by choice of course.

Naruto was having a blast. The really old people appreciated having young company, while those that were 'newly retired', either from being too old or too injured to continue as a ninja and their clan could no longer support them, or they had no clan, well they were very depressed and Naruto's easy-going nature was surprisingly infectious. Especially since he kept asking questions, then enthusiastically telling them about his missions so far, and just as enthusiastically listening to those that spoke of their own missions from long ago. On a few of those, Ryu and Kasumi also paid close attention, as this was genuine wisdom from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Kasumi even made a few new friends, both among the nurses that were always there taking care of the retirees, as well as from a number of the older shinobi. Naruto called everyone there by 'Grandpa' or 'Grandma' and treated them as such, except for the ones that were outright rude to him or were just plain mean. Ryu just liked to listen to all the old war stories.

Afterwords, the 'real' mission began as Shikamaru directed the combined team, with Asuma and Hayato's input of course, across and around all of Konoha, having Naruto use his clones to maximum effect, as well as Ryu and Kasumi's senses to track down every last tagged animal, then captured and contained them, using all their resources at hand, from his own _Kagemane no jutsu_ (Shadow Imitation technique), to Choji's _Baika no jutsu_ (Multi-Size technique) and _Bubun Baika no jutsu_ (Partial Multi-Size technique), and even Ino's more... unique capture jutsu.

Somehow, either through gossip or just a lucky guess, Shikamaru knew that Kasumi had learned the _Mizuame Nabara no jutsu_. Or maybe he just figured that Kasumi, more than Naruto or Ryu, would have her own means of capturing someone besides just taking them down. For those two, well, they were told to capture the animals, not scare them into running off, and thanks to Naruto's shadow clones and Shikamaru's planning, they most often managed to catch the animals on the first try, and if they didn't they had back-up that caught it instead.

Finally, a full hour before sunset, they'd returned all the missing animals to the shelter and Tora to the Fire Lord's wife, again. Then, with great relish, they delivered the expense report to the Hokage, along with the note that the combined team of Teams One and Ten were having a BBQ dinner, all-you-can-eat buffet. For the most part, dinner was fine. Except for the subtle insults Ino kept slinging at Naruto, whether intentionally or not, it was all Hayato could do without speaking aloud to keep Ryu and Kasumi from attacking the ignorant girl. Shikamaru had caught on and when it seemed like the blond was really building up a head of steam in her rants and passing insults, he said or did something that shifted her attention from insulting Naruto to berating himself.

His 'sacrifice' did not go unnoticed by Team One, especially Naruto himself, who quietly thanked the lazy genin as they left the restaurant that evening. Shikamaru just muttered his catch phrase and walked off, but his personal opinion about Naruto had been greatly altered after the day. The heir to the Nara Clan couldn't say whether it was Naruto's team, his sensei, one or both of his teammates, or something else entirely, but he could tell that Naruto was _not_ the Dead Last anymore. If anything, Shikamaru would say that Uzumaki Naruto was now a great deal better all around than all of the graduates put together, quite simply because each of the graduates, despite Naruto and his two teammates, were specialists of some kind. And Naruto had gotten as good as each of them were in their specialty, in _all_ areas.

It was troublesome. But very little in life wasn't.

(Stop "Team Mission")

____________ - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - - ____________

(Play "Buntai No Jutsu")

_Mugen Tenshin Compound_

_Later That Night_

"You sure this is a good idea?" Ryu whispered as the three of them quietly entered one of the training rooms within the Mugen Tenshin compound. "I mean, it is getting kind of late and while my family certainly doesn't mind about what goes on after dark, this is _your_ family we're talking about, Kasumi-hime. And what happened to day _after_ tomorrow? What's so wrong with waiting another day, Hime?"

"Would you please stop calling me that? At least while we're here," she retorted. "We'll be OK."

"We're just training, Ryu," Naruto said. "And we're doing it on our own time, so we're not going to get in trouble or anything like that. And see, the room isn't even being used right now, so it's OK."

"If only simple logic were used all the time for everything, then I might be inclined to believe the both of you. I've personally had some encounters with perfectly nice people when I wasn't technically doing anything wrong and they came down on me like a pile of bricks. Literally in some cases."

"Your family is filled with eccentrics," Kasumi pointed out to him.

"My family is filled with experienced ninja. As is yours," he countered, quite effectively as she had no response to that. "By the way, what was it you and Ino were talking about just before we left? She seemed... unnerved," he chose his words delicately, as actually the Yamanaka Clan heiress looked outright terrified when Kasumi had been speaking with her alone just outside the restaurant after dinner.

"Girl-talk," Kasumi cheerily replied with a straight face.

"What's...?" Naruto started to say, but Ryu cut him off with a hand on the shoulder.

"Don't ask," the taller boy warned him, "You're better off that way. Trust me."

"Uh... OK," the blond shrugged. "What is it you want us to work on anyway, Kasumi-chan?"

"As much progress as we've made in our combination jutsu, and with the _Mamori Arashi_ and _Inmetsu Nadare_, I just believe that we could do so much better than what we're currently doing. Especially with our Team Strike maneuver," she answered.

"Team Strike maneuver?" Naruto repeated, confused.

"_Buntai no jutsu: Ikko Dageki,_" Ryu supplied for the blond. "What is it you're suggesting?"

"We need to work on our timing and our ability to communicate silently. I know when we're in the heat of the moment, it's easy and natural and sometimes it just happens, but we need to be able to do it cold, without getting all heated up and more than a few minutes into the fight. Remember those times when Hayato-sensei tied us all together during exercises? Well, we need to do something like that, but more drastic and we need to start doing it almost daily."

"I'm not sure I like where this is going," Ryu grumbled.

"We'll start off simple, and once we're perfectly in sync, then we'll step it up," she tried to assure the both of them. "But I was thinking we would, all three of us, bind ourselves together with wire and train in taijutsu for a little while. Then we could do some… other things…"

"What other things?" Naruto asked this time, his tone suspicious.

"Uh, this," she held out a pamphlet that was for a class on Free Style Dance.

"No," both young men immediately snapped at her.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad, and I'm not suggesting we take this stupid class, I just mean that we should freestyle dance until all three of us are in sync with one another. Once that's done, I promise you, our combination techniques are going to improve! Beyond what Hayato-sensei has been helping us with."

"Not that I'm against doing that," Ryu said, "but I don't dance. And as much as you come at me that martial arts and dance are not so dissimilar, I will remind you that martial arts isn't about looking pretty! It's about training the body, and dance trains the body to look pretty. End of story. So, NO!"

"Uh," Naruto looked uncomfortably back and forth between his friends, then suggested, "how about we start doing kata with the wires and we'll discuss the whole dance issue after we've mastered that?"

Kasumi and Ryu glared at one another, before they sighed and nodded their heads, agreeing to the compromise. Shortly, Ryu and Naruto both were in their training gear while Kasumi attached ninja wire to all of their limbs, hips and chest so that they could stand about five feet away from each other, but not much more.

"OK, to get this to work right," Kasumi told them, "we all have to start together, but without saying a word and not identifying what we'll be doing, even for the training. So, all together, just pick a form, any form and start. If one is doing a different form than the others, or even if all three of us are doing a unique and different form, just try to match so that we don't get in each others way. And don't start late waiting to see what the other two are doing either, that's cheating. This is supposed to be all about our timing and silent communication skills. You guys ready?"

Taking a deep breath, the gi-wearing shinobi nodded their heads and all three got into their basic stances.

Fortunately, they all started off with the exact same practice form, which just so happened to be the very first one that the two of them taught Naruto together. Unfortunately, that did not mean that they aced their current exercise on the first try.

True, they were all making the exact same movements, all in time with each other, and even with the wires tying them together, it wasn't that hard. There were little things though, which sometimes threw one, or all of them off, and kept them from really being in sync, instead of just doing the same thing at the same time.

Naruto was doing the best he could, but he naturally put more force behind his movements than was strictly necessary. When the movements of the kata forced the wires to become taut, this had the unfortunate habit of tugging on the other two, distracting them and throwing them off. He was also much slower than his teammates, forcing them to hold back in order to let him keep up.

Ryu was the fastest of the three, and this again threw the other two off as Naruto was struggling to keep up, and Kasumi was desperately trying to find a medium between the two extremes. Kasumi had her own faults in when she seemed to focus more on her teammates and less on her own movements, which caused their wires to suddenly become tangled a bit.

Finally, when they finished and had untangled themselves, they each let out a sigh.

"All right, all right," Kasumi sighed again. "We're not perfect. In fact we all need a lot of work, but that's why we're here! To work on this and to get it right finally!"

"You need to focus less on what we're doing and more on what you're doing, Hime," Ryu held up the wire connecting them as point, reminding her of the tangles that had been there moments ago.

"You also need to slow down," she shot back at him.

"Less arguing, more doing," Naruto grumbled, frustrated at how little progress all his taijutsu training had shown at that moment. "We all need to work on it, so let's work on it!"

Kasumi and Ryu took a moment to calm down and each nodded their head in unison with Naruto. Then Kasumi reminded them, "Let's do a different form this time. Don't say or hint or wait for the others to choose one, just do it. Even if it's not the same as what the others are doing, don't back track and try and catch up or switch at the last second. Just keep going and try to feel how to make it work together. Oh, and Ryu, let's all make sure it's a form that _all three of us_ can do, huh?"

"Uh, right..." Ryu blushed, then shook his head and they got back into their ready stances.

This time, unfortunately, each of them started in a completely different form of their own, and after only two or three moves, their wires were impossibly tangled and they all fell to the ground wrapped up like hogs.

There was no discussion anymore. They just got back to their feet, untangled the wires, and resumed their stances and tried again, and again, and again, and again. Nine times out of ten, they kept tangling the wire and overextending or going too fast or too slow and pretty much always wound up in a heap on the floor. Of course that one time, they actually did pretty well, but were no closer to their goal because of it.

So, they kept trying, continuing the exercise repeatedly, even when there were no mishaps. Seventeen out of twenty, they still got tangled, or fell to the ground, or _something_ bad happened. But the last couple times, they were getting _much_ better. Of course that came with repeated motions, even when they weren't the same motions. The body learns where the mind forces it to go.

A full hour after they'd started, they were still going at it.

Naruto was getting faster at least, and Ryu was much more considerate on his speed and which practice forms he chose to do, while Kasumi became very fluid in her own movements. There were points, only flashes really, and not even that most times, but there were points at which all three of them could _feel_ each other.

They had all felt this before. The last couple times they'd fought Hayato-sensei and actually gone all out, there had been something... _visceral _connecting them, making them hyper-aware of everything around them, and of each other. It was what they were trying to recreate with this exercise.

They kept it up for another half an hour, starting over when the worst mistakes tangled the wires or screwed all three of them up in some way. They hardly occurred by this point, and even then no longer tripping them up or driving them to the ground. They still couldn't quite get it so that they were all doing the same kata every time, though it got to be every other one or something like that where they did move in perfect unison.

Suddenly, as Ryu was doing an advanced form of the Academy basics while Naruto did a basic form of what Gouken-sensei had taught him so far and Kasumi was practicing something from her clan's taijutsu, none of which were exactly movement-friendly to one another in close-quarters, the wire between Ryu and Kasumi's legs was swept under and around Kasumi's leg by Naruto's foot. The other end of that wire was tied to Ryu's foot and he was about to do a hi-kick.

At the same time, Naruto had to punch forward and that would pull tight on the wires from his wrists to both his teammates, but also drag Kasumi down across their backs. What was worse was their positions brought all of them drastically out of balance with each other and could very easily cause a serious accident without any of them knowing it.

Except, they _did_ know it!

Just as Ryu was about to make his hi-kick, a flash of instinct instead had him flow to a defensive posture, sweeping his foot back, where it would collide with Kasumi's wrapped leg. Except that she too had a sudden flash of insight and took a step forward, angling her foot and ankle for a side-kick, which brought her leg out of the loop just as Ryu's own foot swept it out of the way.

Then, Naruto continued with his own form, but at the last second, somehow sensing something had shifted without really understanding what, after he punched, pulling the wires tight and thus pulling the off-balance forms of Kasumi and Ryu toward his back, he solidified his stance by instinct and then bent back and wheeled his arms around so that his elbows caught on the wires and pulled them at a slightly different angle of force. This extremely subtle application of force, was all the two of them needed to catch themselves and return to their stances.

Half a dozen more 'small' incidents like this happened for just this latest exercise alone. Somehow, not understanding the what or the how of it, all three of them had become just as hyper-aware of each other and even the wires connecting them to each other!

From that, an instinct that they'd only displayed in the heat of battle before became apparent. When they finally finished and stood at ease for the moment, all three of them suddenly jolted, blinking their eyes as though waking up from a trance.

"What... the..." Ryu mumbled, shock radiating out from him.

"We did it," Kasumi whispered, the realization sweeping through each of them after that.

"YATTA!!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and down with excitement.

"OK, OK, _OK_!" Ryu shouted over Naruto's cheers. "We managed to actually, and I can't believe it still, but we actually did it. But only after an hour and a half of trying and with wires tying us together! There's got to be a way of doing it faster and easier!"

"I agree," Kasumi said. "But the fact that we could do it in a controlled setting instead of just the heat of battle says that it can be done. Which means more practice. Before we start shooting out ideas about how to speed it up, let's make sure we can do it again. Since we're all excited right now, I don't expect it to happen the first time after this, but we need to do it at least ten more times before moving on. All right?"

Ryu hastily nodded his head. Naruto looked ready to complain, but seeing Ryu's agreement and Kasumi's eagerness, he took a deep breath and nodded his compliance.

"I know we said that we shouldn't say out loud what we're gonna do, and just do it," Naruto said after a moment. "But I think we should each do our best, every time. Our best moves, our best effort, our best everything. Don't hold back, just do our best."

They both considered his words for a moment, and found the pearl of wisdom he'd stumbled upon and agreed with smiles on their faces. Each of them then took a moment to center themselves and then got into a very unique formation.

Whether it was fate, Naruto's words, or just plain dumb luck, each of them had fallen into the starting stance for a form that perfectly balanced with the other two. For example, Kasumi, sticking with her clan's taijutsu, had chosen the one she was best at, which relied heavily on speed and using that speed to counter an opponent's attacks. Naruto, having only been taught defensive forms and only the basics behind attacking, had adopted a defensive blocking kata of his newly learned taijutsu style. As a contrast, and to finish out the balance, Ryu instead was using his best attack combo kata of the same style.

Offense, defense, and counter. Attack, block, and speed. It was almost uncanny how they fit together.

Even more amazing, to any observers, even though afterwards all three of them would say they didn't feel that same 'flash of instinct' and hyper-awareness of one another, their actual performance could testify differently. When Kasumi was doing her fast kicks and had to lean forward and back, both Naruto and Ryu had their respective legs held back at that exact moment that Kasumi's was lifting, keeping the wire relatively tight, but not restraining. Then, when Ryu was doing a roundhouse kick or reeling back for heavy punching movements, Naruto would duck down for a block while Kasumi would twist to the opposite side that Ryu would be impeding at that moment, and then flow quite easily and fluidly back into the next movement.

Many would claim that it was the long hours they'd already spent trying to get something very similar to this to happen, and they wouldn't be wrong. The body can learn things that the conscious mind can sometimes take more time and more repetition to truly understand. For whatever reason, these three had a unique instinct about one another, something that gave them what most squads take decades to learn.

Surprised, and pleased by their sudden streak of success, Team One didn't even hesitate in moving on into their next set of practice forms, specifically their second-best. The choices didn't match up as perfectly as their best choices did, but that's where the surprise started to come in.

Almost instantly, they all became hyper-aware of each others presence and even the positioning and placement of the wires connecting them to each other. Rather than let this distract them, or make them nervous, they merely accepted the input and went through the practice forms on auto-pilot. A couple times there were close calls, wires catching, a movement in one direction almost causing them to hit each other, except that they always seemed to move their limbs at _just_ the right angle so that while they brushed up against one another, they didn't actually hit!

They kept this up and didn't pause for a break until they had done this and another set of ten exercises without any major mistakes. Finally, after all of that, they believed they understood how it worked. It wasn't something that was _done_ or that they could _do_ differently.

Technically speaking, it wasn't even a technique. It was merely being aware and in sync with one another on such a level that they behaved more like one being with three bodies instead of three people making agreeing movements.

Suddenly, as soon as they settled themselves from their last success, there was a loud clapping noise from the dojo entrance. Startled, they almost jumped apart, but the adrenaline rush, instead of driving them out of their trance-like states, it deepened them.

(Pause "Buntai No Jutsu")

They snapped out their hands to release the wires tying them to each other and smoothly fell into their 'best' stances, Ryu at the center-lead, Naruto on his left, Kasumi on his right.

A few seconds after that, they recognized that standing just inside the door to the training room was a tall, brown-haired jounin in a white and blue-lined gi there, mirth shining in his eyes. When he saw Kasumi, Ryu and Naruto finally notice him and their reaction to his presence, he stopped clapping and smiled at them.

"Impressive," he complimented them, his voice light with amusement, "Most impressive."

"Niisan!" Kasumi squeaked in surprise and embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you... We were just training, you see and..."

"It wasn't Kasumi-chan's fault!" Naruto exclaimed.

"There is no fault to be had," the jounin, who apparently was Kasumi's older brother, calmed them, "Kasumi, and anyone she chooses to recognize as her guests are free to use our training dojo as often as they like. Provided of course she is escorting you, you understand."

Kasumi nodded to her friends. They sighed with relief. Tenshin Hayate nodded briefly to each of them, eyeing them as he did. Once he was finished appraising the genin, he stepped forward, towering over them and crossed his arms in a way that was not too dissimilar from their sensei's standard pose. Instinctively, they gulped nervously and stood at attention. Hayato always looked like that when he was about to be extra sadistic in their training, and not even Kasumi could say if her brother wasn't the same in some way.

"If you wouldn't mind explaining what it was you were doing, exactly, Kasumi-neechan?" Hayate asked, his brown eyes flashing with enjoyment as he looked his younger sister in the eye.

"Not that there's anything wrong with training alongside your teammates to better prepare yourselves for future missions," he chuckled, "But usually training doesn't involve my baby sister tying herself up with ninja wire to two teenage boys. Teammates or not."

Kasumi winced, then bowed briefly in apology. "I am sorry, Hayate-niisan. It is a very... unique training exercise. You see, we are trying to increase our synchronicity in battle, and so we did this in an attempt of allowing us to learn how to better get in sync with each other outside of the heat of battle. I apologize if there may have been any misunderstanding with the clan."

Hayate arched one dark eyebrow, though none of the genin could properly read his emotions, they nervously refrained from speaking, for the moment. Naruto in particular made an effort at holding his tongue. He was angry with this man, simply for the fact that he'd made Kasumi believe, however briefly, that she should not be a ninja and despite all the actions from him since, Naruto could not forget that.

Finally, the Head of the Mugen Tenshin Clan uncrossed his arms and put his fists on his hips. When the genin had the courage to look at his face again, they saw he was smiling ruefully at his younger sister.

"How it appeared to those in the clan isn't really relevant here," he said, his voice light and mocking, "You've brought these two by before and did some training that was little more than review basic taijutsu. That you used the room without informing anyone is also irrelevant. In fact, I was suitably impressed with what I saw, and many of the clan would agree with me on that point. No, that's not really the point here."

"Then what is?" she questioned, uncomfortably curious despite herself.

"Don't tell him anything, Kasumi-chan!" Naruto snapped, having had enough of this.

Before Kasumi could respond, Naruto deliberately put himself between Hayate and his teammates, putting his finger accusingly on the older man's chest as he shouted at him. "I don't know what game you're playing here mister, but it ends here!"

Hayate blinked, too stunned for words at the entire scene to respond.

"I admit I'm not smart enough to figure out exactly what you're up to, but I'm not about to let you trick Kasumi-chan or do anything else to her, you got me? I don't know how families are supposed to act, but from what I've seen so far, I'm actually glad I don't have any family if it means doing the kind of stuff you've done to Kasumi. Heck, even Ryu's family are all nuts! So don't even think about sabotaging Kasumi's chances from doing what she wants to do, you hear me!"

Hayate rocked back on his heels, going way past 'stunned' and into 'shocked' at the blond boy's words.

"I'm sorry," Hayate said in effort to come to grips with what was happening, "but who are you again?"

Before Naruto could make things worse, from her point of view, Kasumi quickly stepped in to take over, putting her hand on Naruto's shoulder to calm him for the moment. "My apologies, Niisan. Hayabusa Ryu, you already know. This is my teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. He... he was the one that helped me in passing the genin test, along with Ryu. If it were not for him, I truly believe that I would not be a ninja today."

Hayate wasn't sure how many shocks he could receive in one night, but at least he now understood the boy's... no, the young man's reaction to him. This needed rectifying.

"Then it is a great honor to have you in our household, Uzumaki-san," Hayate said. He then bowed to the young man, saying, "Our family owes you a debt of honor and gratitude. I am honored to have you here."

Now it was Naruto's turn to rock back on his heels in shock. "Huh? What's going on here?"

"Allow me to explain, Niisan," Kasumi said, then turned to Naruto.

"Naruto, there's something you have to understand here," she said, trying to explain. "Hayate-niisan, first and foremost is my brother. But he is also the head of our clan, which holds the reputation as being one of the more powerful in all of the Fire Nation. I am the heir, until Niisan marries and gives me lots of nieces and nephews that is. Which means that I cannot appear weak to the general public."

"But Kasumi-chan, you're one of the strongest of us, and certainly the smartest!" Naruto protested.

"Yes, but what if you weren't on the team, Naruto?" she tried to get him to realize what she had figured out so long ago on his own. "What if instead of you; Ayane, or Shino or even Sasuke were put on Team One with me and Ryu? Remember the things you told me the day of the test? I guarantee you, none of them would have tried to bolster me up like you did. I... I was so scared that entire time, Naruto, and then Hayato-sensei told us that he'd been given a mission to fail me, but he did it by giving us a near impossible test, not by just declaring us unfit to be genin 'just because'; he gave us an actual test."

"Which we passed!" Naruto protested.

"Not if you weren't there," she insisted. "You got Ryu to calm down and work with us. You got me to fight in the first place! You inspired us to do our best and then push ourselves beyond what we'd been trained to do. I cannot be more sincere in this, Naruto. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be a ninja right now."

"K-Kasumi-chan..." Naruto didn't know what to say.

"Having said that," Kasumi took a breath and continued in a normal tone of voice, "please understand why Hayate-niisan did what he did in the first place. If the jounin assigned to my team had not been given a mission to fail me, and you were not on my team... there is a decent chance I still would have made genin, but I would have done so filled with fear and held back from what I find myself truly capable of. I would have been just another genin, filling the ranks, nothing special or extraordinary. For the heir of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, that is not acceptable."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, trying to understand.

"Kasumi-neechan," Hayate interrupted, "Let me take it from here."

Taking the short blond off to the side, Hayate spoke to Naruto as he would any fellow ninja of Konoha, as an equal. "Naruto, right?"

"Hai," he nodded, then hesitantly added, "Tenshin-san."

"You may call me Hayate, if you like," Hayate told him with a smile. "What do you know about the Council, Naruto?"

He shrugged, then answered, "The old man says they seem to hate me. I kinda agree."

"Good call," Hayate nodded. "The Civilian Council and four other people do give the impression that they would rather see you dead. The only reason you are not, besides the Hokage protecting you, is because all except one clan of Konoha have agreed that you _not_ be killed or turned into some kind of weapon. I am not allowed to speak of the reasons for this, but I'm told that you already know them?"

His face scrunching up in part pain, part anger, and part anguish, Naruto silently nodded his head.

"Do they know?" the jounin silently gestured towards the watching Kasumi and Ryu. Naruto shook his head no. Hayate nodded his head, understanding the youth's reasons for keeping the secret.

"The Fourth Hokage wanted you to be seen as a hero to this village," he whispered, low enough so only Naruto could hear. "I agree, and I do see you as a hero. For the burden you carry. But now, I also see you as a hero for helping my sister become the kunoichi I always knew she could be."

Naruto's head snapped up, his eyes filled with wondering confusion.

"The real reason that I approached the Hokage with that mission that would clearly interfere with the Genin Testing was not because I didn't want Kasumi to become a ninja," Hayate explained. "Part of it was that if she truly were not ready to deal with the harsh reality of the world, and still became a ninja, then she could be seriously hurt or even killed. I did not want that to happen to my baby sister. What I told the Council and your Jounin Sensei was the spiel about how the Mugen Tenshin Clan cannot afford to have an unworthy, mediocre heir and that with her training at the time, that truly is all that Kasumi would've become. So, while hoping that she would surpass her limitations, which she now has, I ordered a mission to have her test be so difficult that it would be all but impossible for whatever team she landed on to pass. It would mean she spent another year at the Academy and a very small spot on our clan's reputation that our heir could not pass the first time through. Still, it would have been another year in which to properly train her to become strong enough to pass. As strong as she is now. For which, she insists, I have you to thank."

"I... I... I..." Naruto stammered, blushing bright red.

"Allow me to make it up to you? And to get to know the young man that will be responsible for protecting Kasumi in my absence?" Hayate offered his hand.

Naruto's eyes took on a steel-like quality, but the rest of his face lit up with a brilliant smile. He took the jounin's hand and shook it once, telling him, "I won't let anything bad happen to Kasumi-chan. No matter what. And I keep my word, that's my nindo, my ninja way."

"Very good then," Hayate nodded to the youth before him. "Then let me help you so you are better able to keep that word. It will also help me make up for some of what my clan owes to you." Hayate turned to have all three team members in his sight once again, and raising his voice once more to levels audible to all of them, "Let's start, by you three explaining what it is you're trying to do here. Maybe I can help?"

"Well, uh..." Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head in sudden embarrassment.

"We were trying to be a better team, basically," Ryu retorted.

"Oh, and how are you accomplishing this by tying yourselves up?" Hayate asked.

"To help us better figure out how to get in sync with one another," the teen shrugged.

Raising his eyebrows in interest, Hayate commented, "Well, that is impressive. Combination jutsu take a lot of work, and because of that are considered high level techniques. Are you three planning on being the next Ino-Shika-Cho Combo Trio?"

"Uh, no," Kasumi flatly denied, her arms crossed.

"We just had a joint mission with them today," Ryu said as way of explanation.

"Yeah, something Ino said or did made Kasumi-chan really angry with her. Said it was... girl-talk," Naruto shivered for some inexplicable reason. The fact that Ryu and Hayate did so too at the same time made him feel better about it though.

"Well, having known their fathers, who are practical experts at using ninja-to-ninja combination jutsu, I can say that it would be a laudable goal to look more at the idea behind it more than the participants," Hayate advised them.

Ryu twitched his head, suddenly curious and asked, "Ninja-to-ninja combination? That sounds like there are other versions of combination jutsu. What's the difference?"

"Ah, caught that did you," Hayate scratched his chin, embarrassed all of a sudden.

"Well, I'm sure that it's not _every_ variation, but from what I'm familiar with; ninja-to-ninja combination is when two or more ninja work together in perfect sync to perform a high level technique, whether it be for attack, defense, capture, or some other reason, though it doesn't have to be for just one reason either. Then there is ninja-and-summons combination. This is more unique and not entirely possible for two or more ninjas. Only for the ninja and his or her summons. What the ninja does is he channels his chakra into the summons, and then the summon performs a special technique it otherwise is not capable of, or one that it is capable of but at greater power. The last one that I really know of isn't necessarily considered a jutsu-type, but I've seen it happen; ninja-to-warrior combination. Instead of another ninja, you work together and in conjunction with someone that is not a ninja, or someone that cannot use chakra. It's not a perfect system, but you'd be surprised who all is out there that have powers besides chakra, yet are just as, if not more powerful than many ninja."

"Wow, I had no idea," Ryu muttered.

"But we're still having trouble just getting the two jutsu we've come up with so far to work!" Naruto complained. "How are we supposed to start learning how to team up with other ninja, or warrior or whatever?!"

"Well, first of all, you're all still genin," Hayate reminded them. "Secondly, you've only been out of the Academy for a month at the most. You're not supposed to be legendary ninja right out of the Academy. You have to train and build up your strength, your experience, and your techniques as well. Both for taijutsu and ninjutsu. I trust your Jounin Sensei is helping you out with those jutsu you mentioned?"

They nodded.

"Well, I won't step on anybody's toes by offering to help where he probably already has. And knowing you, neechan, you've already figured out how to make it work in a dozen different ways. Be patient and I'm sure you'll all reach the level to actually use your combo jutsu soon. Just give it some more time and keep working hard and training."

"Believe me, we are," Ryu grumbled.

"I just wish I didn't have to hold you guys back so much," Naruto apologized, though there was no need. "Even if you say that I've been working just as hard as you guys, and that no one is expecting me to do more, I can see where you guys have to hold yourselves back from getting better because you have to teach me or show me stuff I should have already learned! My own fault really..."

"Naruto, that's not true!" Kasumi protested.

"Come on buddy! It's not like that and you know it!" Ryu called.

Naruto shrugged, hearing what they were saying, but not really listening.

Seeing this, Hayate approached him and drew him off to the side while saying to Kasumi and Ryu, "Why don't you two go ahead and work out the next phase of your team training? From what I saw of it early, you've certainly gotten that first step. Now you just need to make it more difficult and challenging. Naruto, would you mind if I spoke with you for a couple minutes?"

"What's up Hayate-san?" Naruto chirped, the earlier antagonism gone as if it had never existed.

"Well, I've been thinking about what else I have to offer for all that you've done, and I think I've come up with something. I know that Kasumi and Ryu have been working with you on your basic taijutsu, but have you found someone to help you with anything more... complex than what is used at the Academy?"

"Yep!" Naruto's attitude suddenly flipped as the topic returned to one of his favorite subjects, "Ryu introduced me to one of his uncles! Gouken-sensei! He's strict, but he teaches me stuff and he also likes to show off so I can see what I'll be learning from him eventually. So far he says he's taught me the basics of the basics. Mostly all I've learned is how to stand and a couple of punching, kicking and blocking exercises. Lots of blocking exercises."

Hayate chuckled and nodded. He was familiar with Gouken, or at least the fighting styles he preferred. And judging from how Ryu often complained about how hard his family worked him, he could take a couple guesses on how the Hayabusa relative trained others in those fighting styles.

"OK then, how about, as thanks for helping Kasumi become a shinobi, I teach you a few moves from the Mugen Tenshin style?" Hayate offered.

The brown-haired jounin swore he'd never seen a grin that wide in his life, except maybe on certain predators in the wild. "YEAH! YAY! I get to learn some cool fighting moves!!" Naruto exclaimed, happy beyond belief.

"Niisan?" Kasumi called, asking what was going on.

Hayate smiled and waved her off, telling her that everything was fine and under control and that she continue to rest. "Let's start with one move, then we'll go from there. Now, this is one of my favorites, called _Maizuru_. Basically, it's just a somersault kick, but there are some subtle differences that make it more effective than just doing any old somersault kick. First, lets start by seeing you do just that; a somersault. Then we'll go from there, all right?"

For the next half hour, as Kasumi and Ryu discussed ways of improving their training techniques and watching Hayate walk Naruto through performing the Maizuru, demonstrating it for the eager young genin, both as itself and then against a water clone of himself. While they were working, Naruto showed off his way of training faster, by having thirteen clones observe Hayate from thirteen different points of view and then another set of clones observe himself when he tried to do it. Hayate was very impressed.

After the first half hour, Kasumi and Ryu both came over to closer observe the side-training, Kasumi adding her own bits of advice, and Ryu observing silently, perhaps trying to figure out how to do the move himself, or to adapt it into something else he could use. Fifteen minutes after that, Naruto was able to pull off the Maizuru five times in a row, each almost picture perfect. Hayate admitted that he was impressed with the speed at which Naruto had learned the technique, but they put the blame on Naruto's unique use of the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_.

Since he'd gotten it so quickly, and Kasumi and Ryu were willing to wait, Hayate decided to sneak in one more move for Naruto because quite frankly, he liked the kid!

So, he showed Naruto how to put more power into his blows. Hayate himself did this quite often, and the only telltale sign that it was being done was sometimes a small chakra burst was felt just before he threw the punch. Not that anyone receiving said attack could do anything about it once he struck.

Since this was mostly done internally, no matter how many clones Naruto had watching him, the boy wouldn't be able to copy it with just that. Hayate took pity on the boy, however and gave him some basic exercises for him to do that would help in eventually enabling him to do it. Kasumi had already learned the exercises, though she could not yet pull it off, and Ryu was learning something similar but different from another of his uncles.

After Naruto tried doing it, he asked some questions, which all three attendants were willing to answer. The next time he tried, it was better, but still not quite what Hayate had demonstrated. It was suggested he try doing it against a shadow clone, that way he'd be able to receive the memories of what it felt like and maybe he could improve it more on his own later. He tried it, and after about ten clones, each hit twice, once with a regular punch, and the second using the technique Hayate had shown him. The second punch always dispelled the clone, but it wasn't until the tenth clone that Naruto reported any real difference in punching power.

Hayate might have tried to continue the lesson all night, but Kasumi insisted they try just one more thing before calling it a night. Unfortunately, in her opinion, the next exercise would involve telling Hayate about _Chakra Gattai_ and the unique ability they'd discovered in how they could fuse their chakra together to sort of recharge each other, or supercharge in Kasumi and Ryu's case. A talent so rare that they were all fairly certain they were the only ones in the whole country that could actually do it.

Still, she wanted to get this done, sooner rather than later. Biting the kunai, so to speak, she explained to her older brother about what they could do.

"Niisan," she began, "I... well, what we're about to do, it's..."

"Hopefully not inappropriate," he interrupted.

"No," she said flatly, "but you probably wouldn't understand unless I tell you what it means first of all. Something... happened during our genin test, our fight against Hayato-sensei. And since then, he's trained us in how to harness it, at least somewhat, and that is what we're going to try next."

"You're referring to the incident that won you the fight? When chakra from the three of you accidentally fused together and created an explosion that knocked all four of you on your asses?" he asked.

Kasumi blinked and her jaw dropped to the floor, stunned.

"I _am_ on the Council and I _was_ the one to hire Hayato for that mission, neechan," Hayate reminded her.

Blushing, Kasumi scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. Turning to Naruto, she spoke to him. "Ryu and I have somewhat already discussed this, Naruto, but the idea now is to use the chakra sensing technique Ryu taught us, in conjunction with _Chakra Gattai_. It probably won't work the first time, but it's the only thing I can think of to advance us further, besides freestyle..."

"NO!" Ryu and Naruto both shouted, then got into position before the chestnut haired kunoichi could blink. "Let's just do this!" the boys cried.

"Uh... all right," she agreed and extended her own hand to the formation.

(Play "Buntai No Jutsu")

"_Chakra Gattai_!" all three of them called at once, their hands extended yet not quite touching. They stood like that for a few seconds, gathering and molding their chakra before channeling it to their open palms and allowing it to interact with one another as they'd trained to do. There was a brief flicker of energy between their hands as the chakra began to fuse between the three equal sources of power.

Hayate, observing from the side, raised an eyebrow as he felt their chakra flare.

Over the weeks, since their first success with using _Chakra Gattai_, each of them had been working to hold more and more of the chakra that surged back into their bodies after the fusion completed. Naruto, of course, had the better luck with that out of all of them. Still, not even he could contain all of that energy, but his system could hold it for longer than anyone else. With Kasumi and Ryu, however, their chakra coils just couldn't contain that much energy coursing through them, so they had to either use it, or lose it by their coils naturally expelling the extra chakra from anywhere they could, creating the special effects of waving hair and jets of chakra shooting from all over their bodies looking like they had flaming auras.

This time, however, all three of them needed to use it, but the way they had to use it was extremely difficult. The chakra sensing exercise Ryu had shown them and that they were attempting to use now, required 'stretching' the chakra so that it became thin and tight while traveling through their bodies so that it became more sensitive to external chakra signatures and pulses. With all the excess chakra now traveling through their bodies, this became all but impossible. There quite simply was no _room_ for the chakra to stretch out to!

Naruto struggled himself for something to be done, as with all his normal chakra, he had almost twice that amount now running through his coils and body and it was beginning to strain just to contain it, let alone try and 'stretch it out thin and tight'!

Suddenly, he remembered his conversation with the Hokage a couple weeks ago, when the old man was showing him how to use chakra strings. The hardest part Naruto had with it was keeping the chakra together once it left his body, but still connected to him. It was easy with jutsu, because the hand seals focused the chakra and brought it together. With chakra strings, it was pure chakra manipulation, no hand seals to direct it, it had to be all Naruto.

At first, all Naruto could do was maybe an inch or two before it unraveled and all he was doing was pouring chakra into the air. He couldn't even attach it to anything. The Hokage had laughed at him, but not in a mean way. Looking back at it from now, Naruto thought it was more that the old man had been remembering something, probably to when he'd first learned the technique and had the same trouble. He'd then shown Naruto a few different ways to practice and what to do when he got better at it, which he had.

Yet, the Hokage had shared one very important piece of information, which was what prompted Naruto to remember it in the first place.

"Though the Suna-nin and puppet-users limit themselves to only using their fingertips to creating chakra strings," he'd said, "I discovered, by accident mostly, that you can create them all over your whole body if you want to. But, the fingertips are where you hold the most control and dexterity needed to make the more subtle gestures needed to control a battle puppet. It's possible even to control an entire battle puppet and make it fight an entire army with just a single fingertip. At least for the more skilled puppet-users."

"Then why not have strings coming out of your eyeballs or your tongue or your toes, Jii-jii?" Naruto had asked at the time.

The Hokage laughed again and answered, "Well, while that would be a very interesting tactic indeed, Naruto, it wouldn't be very practical. Because the less subtle movements you make with the chakra strings, the more complex and difficult it becomes to use those battle puppets I mentioned. Still, you can create chakra strings from just about anywhere on your body, such as your wrist, chest, elbows, knees. Anywhere that you can expel chakra from your body, with enough training, you can mold it into a chakra string. I also found a way to make a sixth chakra string so I could use twelve total, instead of just ten," he held up his hands and wiggled his fingers. "By creating another chakra string coming out of the center of my palm, I found I could control just about anything as well as with my fingertips. But I'm not a puppet-user, so that's not saying much."

_That's_ what he needed! Naruto realized with a start. He didn't have enough room in his body to make the chakra thin and tight, so he'd have to expel it into the air around him, keeping it attached to him just as the chakra strings were, but not _as_ chakra strings. Without hesitating or bothering to verbally explain what he was doing, Naruto did just that, expelling all the chakra he could into the air around him from his body and then maintaining as rigid a hold on it as he could, applying the chakra sensing exercise to it once he had enough 'room' to stretch it out.

The moment Naruto began expelling that cloud, though it was more like a sphere by the time he was done with it, of chakra around his body, Kasumi and Ryu immediately realized what he was up to, and could have slapped themselves silly for not thinking of it first. Without hesitation, they began applying the same technique and as Naruto had taught them how to use chakra strings, it was only a matter of trying it out.

Hayate observed silently, but had to admit that it was an interesting take on a very basic exercise, and given how much chakra each of them now had available to them, it was most practical too. It was a bad tactic if your goal was stealth however, as anybody worth their salt as ninja could sense the amount of chakra the three were now putting out. It was like two jounin level and a kage level ninja had suddenly opened up and were molding chakra without restraint. A bit of an exaggeration, but only because their control was atrocious. A real kage and jounin wouldn't be so sloppy.

The moment all three of them stabilized and had completed 'stretching' the chakra so they could use the chakra sensing aspect, they felt something shift in the air around them. It took only another moment to realize what it was, and they couldn't say they were surprised by it when it happened. They could sense one another, and Hayate too, but above all else they could _feel_ one another!

It was like the same wires that had tied them together before were there again, but made out of pure chakra, and not chakra strings or restraining at all in the slightest. It was more like their chakra was reaching out and connecting to each other, still trying to fuse, or a least stay connected to each other, like the bonds between particles of an atom.

They also realized what the trigger was for them to get in sync with one another. It really wasn't that difficult, they each figured it out on their own, speaking of it afterwords. It wasn't any kind of chakra connection, or psychic link, or even special training. Quite simply put and no more complicated than being _aware of each other_!

Even just standing there, pouring out chakra in a 'sensor network' around their bodies, they were almost intimately aware of where the other was, what they were doing and their general condition. Peripherally, they were aware of many other things around them and could sense a multitude of ways to interact with each other and the things around them.

It was more like instinct they discovered after some testing with a couple more practice movements, without the ninja wire this time, still able to move in synchronicity with one another. They didn't _have_ to move in exactly the same way, but they just _knew_ how to, and how to protect or guard one another too, which they found out after a short round of sparring. They even went one round against Hayate after explaining it to him and he was very impressed. They still got their butts kicked, but he was impressed nevertheless.

After that, they spent some time sitting down and discussing the pros and cons of the fruits of tonight's training. Hayate and Kasumi both had already identified the primary weakness of using the sensing exercise together with _Chakra Gattai_, and after everything they'd already tried tonight, it was the only way to _instantly_ get in sync with one another. They could still do it the hard way, as Naruto called it, and they would continue to practice via the 'Ninja Wire' training method at least once a day, but there were some major benefits of being able to instantly get in sync with one another during a fight.

Of course, Ryu pointed out, if they do get into the middle of a fight where its the three of them against either a whole bunch of guys or one really, really strong guy, stealth and masking chakra won't really matter in the heat of it when the movement and trust of the people at your back could make the difference in victory, or death. Still, they decided to hold off on using their _Buntai no jutsu: Doukishiki_("Team Technique: Synchronization") until they really needed to. Better to always have an ace up your sleeve, right?

After they called the training over and done with, Hayate invited Naruto and Ryu both to stay for dinner, and despite attempts at polite declines from Kasumi and Ryu, Naruto only asked if there would be ramen and then accepted for all of them. They spent the rest of the evening enjoying good conversation and a good meal.

Finally, the night came to a close, as it had been getting late and both Naruto and Ryu had to walk back to their homes, as they all had an early morning the next day.

Hayate made sure to tell Naruto that he was welcome back any time, and after the first time he saved Kasumi's life, Hayate would teach him another cool fighting move. Kasumi was furious with her brother at the prescribed conditions, Ryu was jealous, while Naruto was ecstatic. Naruto went to bed with a giant smile on his face that would probably have to be surgically removed.

(Stop "Buntai No Jutsu")

_Training Area 7_

_The Next Day_

"Today," Hayato said to his genin squad, "we'll be working with Team Seven. They're the only remaining team to have passed, and it's taken me this long to track down their Jounin Sensei, Hatake Kakashi to get his permission to do a joint mission."

"What's he been doing all this time? Taking them out on C-Rank missions?" Ryu asked, dismayed at how long it took Hayato to track this guy down.

"No," Hayato grumbled. "I tried to set up meetings to discuss the possibility with him, and he never showed up on time. So I tried just meeting him when he was with his team before they went on missions, so as not to interrupt their training. He actually left them alone for half the morning and then immediately took them on their missions. Then he would disappear to who knows where afterwards... Well, I finally tracked him down at the local bookstore. His genin are already here, so we'll be conducting our Team Training alongside them for today, then when he finally gets here, we'll go on our joint mission."

"Yay! No Reps! No Revolutions!" Naruto cheered.

"Just for that, all three of you are running laps before our mission with Team Seven," Hayato grinned.

"Awww!" all three of them moaned.

"In fact, go ahead and start running," Hayato ordered. "Meet at Training Area 7 in half an hour. I expect all three of you to have run from here, to the Gate, and all around Konoha and then to Area 7 within that frame of time. And I will know if you didn't. Go!"

"Hai sensei," they all said with much less enthusiasm than normal, as they ran off at a heavy jog.

"We have really got to start learning how to _not_ get on his bad side," Ryu grumbled as they ran. Any slower and they wouldn't make it in time, and they would have to push it just to make that!

"I think he just enjoys torturing us," Kasumi put forth her opinion.

"Hey, uh, who is on Team Seven anyway?" Naruto asked after they'd made it to the wall.

They all had to think about it for a couple of seconds, as they hadn't really paid that much attention when it had been first announced almost one and a half months ago. Finally, each of them remembered at least one person that had been assigned to Team Seven.

"Oh yeah," Ryu muttered between breaths as he ran, "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Ayane too," Kasumi supplied for them. "Mugen Ayane. She's... from the branch family, of the Mugen Tenshin Clan. My clan."

"And Sakura-chan. Uh, Haruno Sakura," Naruto supplied with a blush.

Kasumi raised an eyebrow as they passed the north end of the wall surrounding Konoha, which was the part closest to the mountains and the Hokage Monument. She stared at Naruto, then asked, "Haruno '_Forehead_' Sakura? The Harpy-Uchiha-Fan-Girl? _That_ Sakura-_chan_?"

"Uh, yeah?" Naruto answered, unsure as he'd never heard Kasumi badmouth anyone before. In fact she was talking about Sakura the same way all of them talked about... the _Cat_.

"And what about Hinata-chan, hm?" Kasumi pressed.

Naruto blinked, surprised at the sudden change of subject, then as he gave it actual thought, blushed even brighter red than he did when he'd mentioned Sakura. "Uh, I'm not sure what you're talking about, Kasumi-chan. Sakura-chan is a nice girl."

"Hah!" Kasumi gave an unladylike snort in derision.

"Dude," Ryu quickly cautioned his male teammate, "Shut up. Seriously. If there is anything that men should avoid at all costs, it's three things; girl-talk, girls who irrationally hate other girls, and talking about feelings. Which is the boy-girl version of girl-talk. At least that's what my dad tells me..."

Naruto just soberly nodded his head and started practicing the explosive sprint that Hayato had taught him a few days ago. He quickly began to pull ahead of the group and the accelerated pace cut off any further attempts at discussion, regardless of topic.

Just under half an hour from when Hayato had ordered them to start running, Team One arrived at Training Area 7 and were not very surprised to see their Jounin Sensei already there waiting for them, but Team Seven were standing there waiting on a bridge, apparently with long practiced patience.

"Hi! I'm Haruno Sakura, and we're waiting here for our Jounin Sensei. Who are you? What are you doing here?" a pink-haired, green-eyed girl asked them the moment they all appeared. "Can we help you with something?"

"I'm Jounin Kanzaki Hayato," he replied to the genin. "This is my team, former classmates of yours that I'm sure you recognize; Uzumaki Naruto, Hayabusa Ryu, and Tenshin Kasumi. By order of the Hokage, and with your Jounin Sensei, Hatake Kakashi's permission, we are here to participate with your team in a series of joint-missions for the day."

"Kakashi-sensei never mentioned anything about this to us," Sakura said to them.

"No, I don't imagine he would have, Haruno-san," Hayato coolly commented, "seeing how I only managed to track him down last night and finally got his permission for the joint-missions to take place. I spoke with the Hokage afterward and he agreed that some exceptions could be made. One of those exceptions being that, since Hatake Kakashi is notorious for being late to everything, I'll be conducting your training until your sensei arrives, upon which we'll head off to the tower to get our missions."

"Hn. Why should we believe you?" the dark-haired male demanded, crossing his arms with suspicion. "Maybe this is some kind of test, or you're trying to take advantage of Kakashi's lateness."

"That's really not hard to do," Hayato challenged the genin. "But, if it will satisfy you, _Genin_ Uchiha Sasuke, here are the orders the Hokage gave me after I spoke with him last night. I'm sure you know the seals necessary to prove that it is in fact authentic."

Sasuke's pale cheeks reddened in anger at the condescending tone, but he checked his temper as his other teammate stepped forward and grabbed the orders from the jounin's hand. The purple-haired, red-eyed kunoichi did a quick series of single-handed seals before touching the paper and causing it to light up with released chakra, indicating that it was the real deal.

"The orders are authentic," she reported to her teammates, then handing them back to the jounin. "How may we be of assistance, Kanzaki-sama?"

Hayato blinked at the girl, rather surprised at her forward and suddenly respectful attitude, until he glanced back and saw Kasumi hiding behind both her teammates and rolling her eyes while looking away. Suddenly he was all too glad to have Naruto on his team, rather than the girl that had been scheduled to be on Team One before the Uzumaki had passed. This same girl that now stood before him; Mugen Ayane.

Suddenly, the girl seemed to zone out for a minute, then her gaze settled on the hiding Kasumi. Hayato, all of them really, seemed to hold their breath in preparation for what would happen next.

"Kasumi-sama!" Ayane shouted upon recognizing the chestnut-haired girl hiding behind Ryu.

Kasumi blushed and stepped away from her teammate with a resigned sigh. The moment she was fully revealed, the girl practically dove to her knees in a submissive posture before the Tenshin heir. Ayane's teammates stared, unable to believe that their hardcore teammate, the one that trained practically every second of every day it seemed, was suddenly on her knees like a subordinate before their lord. Only to them, it was for one of their fellow genin that neither one of them could remember the name of.

Hayato cleared his throat rather loudly. Ayane snapped to attention, red coloring her cheeks, but her eyes were on Kasumi only. Even after the jounin cleared his throat a second time, much louder than before.

"Ayane-chan," Kasumi spoke quietly with her fellow clan member. "We can talk later, but for now, Hayato-sensei is not a person that you want to ignore. Now _please_."

Ayane simply nodded her head and turned to face the jounin and repeated her earlier question. "How may we be of assistance, Kanzaki-sama?"

Hayato glared at the girl, crossing his arms over his chest, making her wait at least half as long as she had made him wait, until she began to sweat and looked genuinely guilty for her behavior.

"Well, for starters," he finally answered the genin's question, "until Kakashi arrives, we can't really go in for our mission. And until Kakashi _does_ get here, I would like you three to keep in mind that I am the ranking ninja present at the moment, so you will follow my orders as if they were his. Any other action, and I would have grounds for writing any one of you, if not your whole team, up for insubordination. Is that understood?"

Shocked at this open threat, and more so by the lack of reaction from their fellow genin, all three members of Team Seven solemnly nodded their heads, indicating that they understood.

"Good," Hayato grinned at them, a sight they would very quickly come to hate. "So lets have some fun with our extra time here, shall we? How about a friendly sparring match between the teams? I'll pick."

"Oh, let's mix it up a bit," he said smiling, "None of the usual sparring partners to be expected. Sorry Kasumi, but why don't you face Haruno-san here."

Kasumi grinned predatory-like at the idea of fighting Sakura. The pink-haired girl gulped nervously.

"And I can see you two are practically chomping at the bit already. Sasuke, Ryu, be sure not to actually kill each other," Hayato observed as Sasuke and Ryu glared at one another, already sizing each other up.

"Which leaves you two; Ayane, Naruto," the jounin said to the purple-haired kunoichi and short blond. "I'll be waiting here on the sidelines, keeping an eye out for Kakashi-san. Go ahead and start your matches. Try not to interfere with each other, these are individual matches, not team bombardment. Begin."

Team One, somewhat used to sudden orders requiring immediate action, did not hesitate. A good thing too, as neither did Ayane and Sasuke, though Sakura wished she'd had maybe a little bit more time to prepare.

_Ayane & Naruto_

Naruto ducked down and then rolled to the side in order to avoid Ayane's bull rush followed by a flying spin kick! He couldn't afford to stop there as she immediately spun around with a backhanded roundhouse, trying to land first hit on him.

He was surprised and impressed. She was obviously much better than him in taijutsu, almost as good as Kasumi and Ryu even!

That also worried him, as his taijutsu lessons with Gouken-sensei had barely been going on for two and a half weeks now, and he wasn't even good enough to spar with Ryu yet! How could he be expected to go one-on-one with someone that was almost as good as him then?!

Besides, she kept moving in for the attack, and it took all his concentration to keep avoiding her like he was. He didn't even have enough time to take his stance for crying out loud!

Come to think of it, it still takes him almost a minute to take his stance and feel the 'pillar' that Gouken-sensei says is vital to the use of their martial art. And all he knew were the basic punches and kicks anyway!

He'd better rely on the Academy Style, at least for a little while. With that much, he knew how good he was, and Ryu and Kasumi both said he was able to almost beat the two of them together!

Rolling to the side as Ayane tried a back flip heel kick, instead of continuing to dodge, he rolled back the same way and lashed out with his feet in a grapple maneuver. Surprised, Ayane hesitated, but only for a second, allowing Naruto to get his legs wrapped around hers. He then focused on bringing her down to the ground with proper application of force, but to his surprise, Ayane just smirked condescendingly down at him before jumping up from the balls of her feet and kicking her legs apart, thereby forcing his own to a near impossible width. Wincing at the pain her counter caused, Naruto went back to dodging, but was just a hair too slow, allowing her to slam her foot into his solar plexus, knocking the wind from him as he was sent skidding along the grass.

He didn't let that stop him from running though.

Rolling backwards, he got his feet under him and leaped away from the heel-drop kick that the purple-haired girl sent his way. Turning on his heel, he dashed to the left, then the right, then slowed to a regular jog before his senses told him to dash forward suddenly. Around this evasive action, Ayane's punches and kicks all seemed to _just_ miss hitting the blond, driving up the kunoichi's frustration and anger.

"Hold still you slippery coward!" she called after him.

"Yeah right!" he called back over his shoulder, seeing just how close she really was. He narrowly avoided her next kick at his head, dashing to the ground and rolling away from her follow-up.

"Baka! Yowamiso! Pathetic coward!" she cried an insult every time he successfully dodged her.

"HOLD!" she punched the ground as he rolled away like a hedgehog one second, "STILL!" and then dashed away from a near-standstill the next!

"OK," he said mischievously, coming to an absolute halt, with his arm extended to the side. Unfortunately for Ayane, she had not expected this and ran right into it, clothes-lining herself on his arm. Unfortunately for Naruto, Ayane's training took such actions into account, and instead of dropping to the floor, she flipped backwards on her left leg, the other coming up in a roundhouse kick and slammed it against his cheek and jaw, knocking him away from her and to the ground.

Groaning at the pain, Naruto struggled to get back to his feet, the blow taking a lot out of him, but thankfully his own trick managed to buy him a little bit of time. Not much, unfortunately, he saw her already getting her breathing back under control and ready to start chasing him again at any second. Take that back, she was ready _that very second_! He got his feet back under him, turned around and started running.

When he noticed she was following him, calling him a coward and other stuff again, he grinned and dashed ahead to gain some ground. Instantly he turned back around, accelerating at her, then jumping forward. Ayane only barely managed to get out of Naruto's way. Naruto stopped on one leg, and twisted on it, delivering a backward heel kick, directly to Ayane's chin. The girl grimaced as she let herself flow with the impact, coming to a halt. She blocked his follow-up punch with her lower arms, and twisted with Naruto's momentum, throwing him over her shoulder. Naruto winced as he slammed back first onto the ground.

Ayane raised her right fist above her head, ready to slam it down into Naruto's face, and said, "You're pathetic, dead last."

Naruto's leg came up and slammed in Ayane's stomach making her back up. "You talk too much," Naruto simply said as he jumped back up.

Ayane attacked, and Naruto blocked her first and second punch. The third punch was a trap though, and Ayane locked Naruto's arm and pushed it aside, allowing her right fist to hit Naruto's chest. At the same time her right leg went for his right knee. Naruto pulled his right leg backward, but before he could put it back down, his right arm was let go, and he was momentarily off balance – two hand palms struck his stomach. A left knee followed instantly into the same area, two hands grabbing his shoulders to help with his already downward motion. Ayane's left foot set down on the floor again, only for her right to crane over her head and hit the back of Naruto's skull hard. Two punches, an elbow, another throw and a twirling uppercut followed, sending Naruto crashing to the ground.

"And that's that," Ayane said with satisfaction to herself, half clapping, half sliding her hands up and down, palms together. She turned and started walking away.

"Heh," sounded from Naruto. Ayane looked back, surprised when Naruto rose to his feet, not seeming all that bad off. "Kasumi-chan hits much harder than that," Naruto told her with a stupid grin, a rare moment of calculation entering the blond's mind. Ayane had been all over Kasumi earlier, he remembered. Get her angry and she may not be so coordinated, he thought.

"Of course Kasumi-sama hits much harder than me! She's tired of you holding her back," Ayane yelled back angrily, and attacked Naruto. His quick plan had worked, with Ayane angry with him, the difference in their skill was severely diminished. Now Naruto could hold her off with his newly acquired defensive skills much better. It was still hard going though, and the feisty girl still landed the occasional hit. Block, block, short, quick attack, to force her back a little, another block, and the girl landed a solid punch to his jaw. A leg sweep followed and Naruto was on his back. "Yah!" Ayane yelled as she jumped into the air, and punched straight down into Naruto's chest.

Satisfied Ayane nodded and backed away from her victory, noticing to her astonishment she was breathing a little heavier. The blond idiot actually managed to push her hard enough she felt the strain. "Granted-" There was no way! Ayane turned around and watched Naruto once again get up, this time somewhat worse for wear. "That was probably as hard as Kasumi-chan, but nowhere near as hard as Ryu."

"You- you insolent dimwit. How dare you keep talking like you are equal to Kasumi-sama and Ryu-sama even though I'm kicking your ass for it," Ayane said with a growl.

Naruto shrugged.

"Grr!" the purple-haired genin growled at him, diving forward with her fingers shaped like claws. She took swiping strikes at him, mostly aiming for his head, and moving much slower than before. This made it easier for him to just dodge instead of wasting energy on blocking, so mostly he just ducked and bobbed and weaved around her clumsy strikes.

"Heh heh heh," he chuckled as he saw an opening a mile wide and quickly took it. Given how big it was, he decided to try something and took a moment to apply what Hayate-san had taught him about increasing the force of his blows.

"Hee–" Naruto gathered the energy for the strike, slipping into the basic stance Gouken-sensei had taught him for throwing a heavy punch. He felt the 'pillar' and used that as additional leverage, and then threw the strongest punch he knew how to at Ayane's abdomen, "–YAH!"

All Ayane saw was the insolent boy get into a standard attack pose, and then the dust and grass and leaves around him suddenly kicked up barely a second before he threw both his fists right into and practically _through_ her gut! The amount of force behind the blow was more than Ayane could have expected and she was caught completely off-guard, and was sent flying back from the short blond with almost inhuman strength! Except, she realized several moments after skidding to a halt along the grass, it wasn't strength.

Briefly, so briefly that she didn't even recognize it at the time, she'd felt a chakra surge just before he attacked. Wait a minute, she had seen that kind of attack before! Hayate-sama! That... that... that _insolent bastard_! Trying to steal from the Head of the Mugen Tenshin Clan! She would teach him!

"That _DOES IT_!" she growled, getting angrily back to her feet, out of breath. "You're going to pay for your insolence!" she screamed at him, diving forward with murderous intent.

"You're going to pay for your insolence!" she screamed at him, diving forward with murderous intent.

"Gulp!" Naruto gulped, paralyzed by the very real Killing Intent he now felt directed solely at him. As such, he didn't dodge in time when she suddenly jumped up and came at him with a twisting spin-kick!

"_Cannon Drill_!" came the echoed shout, as the hit landed, sending him flying.

Not for long though, as Ayane was suddenly there behind him with an overhead dropkick to the back of his shoulders, followed by a reverse heel uppercut, with her back turned to him she launched several spinning roundhouse kicks and punches that strung together no less than twelve successive hits! She paused for only a moment, breathing heavily, and stared as Naruto groaned and got to his hands and knees, about to stand up.

Still angry and frustrated, she growled and charged at him, picking him up by the back of his jacket and yanking him backwards, she slammed an elbow into his side as she raced by, turned on her heel and slammed her other elbow into his chest in another charge, before turning back and repeating, striking with fists, backhands, elbows, knees, kicks, punches, feet and legs in a damaging all-out assault. She still wasn't done with him though, and jumped up into another twisting spin-kick, finishing that with an upward thrusting kick that sent him up into the air! While he was still mid-air, he could have sworn he heard another echoing shout that said, "_Killer Bee Assault_!" before Ayane leaped up and slammed him with four heavy jump kicks, one right after the other, sending him higher and higher into the air, before grabbing him by the back of the neck with her ankles and driving him into the ground with a back flip neckbreaker.

Ayane breathed heavily as she stepped back, she had just landed such a devastating succession of hits on the annoying, insolent blonde, he was surely down now. The most annoying part was how much she had had to do to get past the blonde's defenses, worse off were those punches he landed on her. Her body felt heavy from her exertion and the damage the blond had inflicted. What Dead Last lacked in skill, he made up for with strength; whenever he could hit her, he made sure it stuck.

"Wow, you actually hit harder than Ryu once or twice there."

Ayane looked up, and saw Naruto getting up, again. He wasn't exactly pristine anymore like the first time he just got up when he should have been out – having a split lip, and a bruised cheek – but he was still getting up. Naruto wiped away a trickle of blood from his lip, and said, "But it is nowhere near as hard a Hayato-sensei's torture, I mean training sessions." Once again an infuriating grin on his face; but Ayane was too tired to react to it.

"What the hell are you? You should be down," Ayane muttered weakly, forcing herself back into a fighting stance. The question didn't quite cover it, as Naruto attacked her, without having slowed down much, if any at all. Now it was her turn to be on the defensive, and Ayane had to say she was not suited for it!

His attacks, while powerful and fast, were sloppy, she observed, too tired to summon her earlier anger. She blocked with her forearms and open palms, diverting the force of his blows to the side or back at him, but he either never felt it, or he just absorbed it as he did all her earlier attacks against him! She tried throwing him again, but he managed to twist out of it at the last second with a basic Academy maneuver that she should have seen coming!

His form and style might not have been perfect, she realized with a flushed face, but _she_ was the one that was getting sloppy! She needed to back away and regain her focus, but like she had at the beginning, he was not letting her have a moments rest, constantly on the attack or harassing her in some way with either punches, kicks, or throws! This went on for some minutes more, to the point where they were almost grappling, and both had landed an equal number of attacks against each other and blocked or dodged just as many. She noticed that he'd finally started to breathe heavily, as she had been for the past fifteen minutes!

"Wh-what _are you_?!" she demanded breathlessly.

He grinned, gasping for air, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever!" he stated with such conviction and passion that she could only stare. Once she got over that, she glared at him, and resumed her assault, no longer mocking or verbally challenging him.

Part of her wanted to believe him, part of her refused to acknowledge anything he said, but there was another small part of her, a _VERY_ _small_ part, which knew what he said was the truth and that she was currently sparring with a future Hokage, one who would be greater than all that came before. She quickly shoved this part of her to the back of her mind and resumed the spar with greater intensity. Though she held off on the worst of the insults, she couldn't stop herself entirely.

_Kasumi and Sakura_

Kasumi wasn't sure who had it worse, she silently admitted. Sakura for having to face her, or Naruto for having to face Ayane. Oh, she was very confident and protective of Naruto and the debt of honor she owed him, but she also knew the level of his skill versus the level of Ayane's skill.

Still, at least both she and Ryu had been working to correct that for their teammate. Haruno-san here on the other hand, she had _barely_ passed the taijutsu portion of the Academy Exams, Kasumi remembered, and judging by how the girl's physical appearance and even outfits hadn't changed at all from what she remembered, the heir to the Mugen Tenshin Clan doubted that Sakura had made any similar efforts in correcting her skill level. Perhaps it was time to teach her the lesson that would change that?

"So, Kasumi-san," Sakura tried to start a bit of small talk when Kasumi did not instantly attack, "How have you been? Have you been doing a lot of missions? Did you know I got on Sasuke-kun's team?"

Kasumi winced at that last squeal, and then frowned at her sparring partner. "That is hardly relevant to the current situation, Sakura-san. I suggest that you take your stance, so that we may begin."

"Uh, right," Sakura blushed crimson and nodded her head. Slowly, Kasumi got into her ready stance, and as expected, Sakura got into a weak form of the standard Academy taijutsu stance.

"This is a training spar, Sakura-san," Kasumi told her opponent. "I'm not going to kill you. But you should still treat the exercise as though I am about to. Otherwise you learn nothing."

"Uh, right..." Sakura confidently remarked, her fists shaking.

Kasumi didn't even bother being subtle about it, she slammed right past Sakura's shaking arms, as much defense as she had up, and punched her just below the collarbone with her flat-palm strike. Immediately, Sakura fell back, gasping and choking and holding her throat and chest, coughing and rolling around on the ground in pain.

"I said I wasn't going to kill you. I didn't say I wouldn't hurt you," Kasumi stated matter-of-fact like as she resumed her stance.

"Oww..." Sakura groaned once she'd regained her breath, still rubbing her throat.

"Come on, get up, don't tell me that's all it takes," Kasumi uncharacteristically mocked her opponent.

Sakura grimaced, and stood up. "You're going to pay for that."

If Sakura was expecting a reaction, she was sorely disappointed. All that came from Kasumi was an eye roll. Sakura surged forward, and Kasumi brought her right arm up to block, while taking a half-step back. Sakura's minimal strength was easily deflected, and Kasumi simply twisted around the pink-haired genin, sending her onward with her own momentum. A kick to Sakura's butt added insult to injury.

Sakura was rubbing her backside in humiliation as she turned around, looking at the smiling Kasumi just standing there, completely at ease. Sakura came over more cautiously, and threw a punch. With a light flick of Kasumi's right hand it was deflected away. The Mugen Tenshin heir suddenly crouched down, and both her legs grabbed Sakura's. With a yank from her legs and follow up push, Sakura was tumbling away through the grass, until she crashed against the bridge beams with her back; ass in the air, head in the grass and turned so her chin was on her chest, and her sides of her split dress hanging left and right, showing her skintight black shorts to the world.

"Cute pose, Sakura; I'm sure enemy ninja will run away in fear of all that action taking their breath away. From laughing," Kasumi remarked casually; a little surprised at her own cruelty. But Sakura was a Sasuke-fangirl bitch that treated her teammate like he was less than dirt, and was extremely hypocritical.

Undignified, Sakura growled and struggled to get herself upright, before rising to her feet again. "BITCH!" Sakura screamed, and after reaching Kasumi with a charge, made several swipes with a kunai. Kasumi backed away from the first, side stepped the second, and then rapidly moved forward underneath the overhead swipe from Sakura. Her hands blocked the pink-haired girl's attempt at her face, and twisted her around, while holding the wrist tightly.

"Argh!" Sakura grunted, as her arm was twisted to her side, and the kunai fell from her grasp. Three kicks followed from Kasumi, one crashing into Sakura's jaw, one in her stomach, and one finally to the side of Sakura's knee. With more moans of pain, Sakura sank to her knees, and was then roughly pushed to the ground. Still holding Sakura's twisted arm, and twisting it further straight up, Kasumi sank down to her knees; her right one pressing on the center of Sakura's back. As Sakura grunted from the sudden pressure on her spine, Kasumi's left hand grabbed the pink-haired girl's hair, and pushed her head into the grass. Kasumi rubbed Sakura's face in the ground, afterwards lightly slapping the back of Sakura's head, and she asked, "Had enough yet? Or are you thirsty for more?"

"Gah! Argh! AAHHH!" Sakura struggled and screamed.

"Sounds like you could use some more work," Kasumi coldly stated. "Guess I need to find some dog poop to rub your face in then, huh?" Sakura froze at the words, which allowed Kasumi to let her go and jump back without having to worry about being attacked or tripped by the girl's struggles.

Suddenly free, Sakura turned over on her back and crawled back away from her tormentor. Seeing this, Kasumi chuckled and approached the prone genin. Looking up at the slowly approaching Kasumi, she gulped in appreciation of just how much better the chestnut-haired girl was.

Scrambling back to her feet, Sakura hurried to get back into her basic defense stance, even as Kasumi just calmly walked up to her, putting one foot in front of the other with each step. Sakura nervously backed away from the advancing kunoichi.

"Shall we continue?" Kasumi asked with an evil smile on her face, a virtual mirror of her sensei's.

_Ryu and Sasuke_

The moment Hayato said 'Begin', there were two dark-haired blurs racing towards each other, kunai drawn. They clashed once, twice, three times before breaking away to judge their respective performance. Seeing no real damage to either one of them, they challenged each other another half dozen times, even as their teammates battled around them.

Ryu glared at the so-called "Rookie of the Year" with an eye of disdain. He himself had only been like second runner up! Still, his honed instincts told him that as arrogant and full of himself as the Uchiha was, the genin was no slouch and carried a significant amount of skill. At the very least he could expect him to know at least half of the same Katon jutsu as Ryu knew himself.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was smirking confidently as he circled his opponent. Against Kakashi, a jounin with a legendary reputation, he had no chance and he knew it. Even with the man's guard down, _several times_, he never managed to get a solid hit during the Bell Test. Against a fellow genin, from his own graduating class, of which he was the most powerful, most skilled and all around best ninja, well, he had little to fear.

Although, this Ryu was unexpectedly skilled. It wouldn't be like fighting the dobe, so easy he wouldn't even have to try, but Sasuke knew if he kept his guard up and his eyes open for any weaknesses, he would win. Speaking of which...

"Hn. You're pretty good. Surprising that someone with the dobe as a teammate would be so skilled," he taunted, trying to get the other genin riled up.

Rather than react, Ryu just smirked back and replied, "Yeah, us geniuses have to stick together like that. Didn't they used to call you that? A genius? So far I'm just seeing a standard shinobi that is, at best, only a year ahead of the rest of his class."

"Why you!" Sasuke growled, surging forward with a few fast slashes from his kunai.

Ryu blocked each slash with sure strokes and at the moment Sasuke paused to either pull back or gather energy for another series of attacks, Ryu struck first. Grabbing the black-haired boy's blue shirt with his free fist, he used his kunai to knock the Uchiha's weapon away, losing his own in the process. His other hand now free, he lifted the Uchiha off his feet and tossed him up into the air. Ryu smirked when he saw Sasuke's eyes widen in surprise.

"_Shoryuken_!" he cried, moving quickly before the body had fallen even an inch. Clenching his fist, he channeled a fair amount of chakra to both his fist and his legs, allowing the energy to explode out of him as he landed the jumping uppercut in Sasuke's gut and sent the Uchiha flying.

"Gah!" Sasuke nearly puked as he was tossed to the ground, holding his gut in pain.

Trembling, he slowly got back to his feet, only to be met with a charging Ryu, who landed a spinning sidekick to his face, knocking him further back. He bit his tongue rather than cry out again, but this time he was prepared and stood before Ryu could attack again. Thankfully for Sasuke, he didn't.

Instead, Ryu just stood from where he'd kicked Sasuke, smirking at him with his arms crossed. Sasuke snarled and started to run, but after only a couple steps stopped and waited a moment. Even he couldn't recover from a blow like that so quickly. He needed a minute to regain his bearings and to catch his breath. A fact that Ryu seemed aware of and was graciously giving him that time.

Scowling, Sasuke put his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths, and focused on regaining his equilibrium. Once he was confident enough he could take more than a few steps without keeling over, he stood straight once more and approached the other genin more cautiously than before. Inching forward in a slowly closing circle, the two remained on guard, their eyes dancing as they analyzed their opponent. When they finally reached striking distance, Ryu struck first with a fast kick, punch, and strike combo. Sasuke, seemingly expecting just that combo, jumped up for a side-kick to the head, catching Ryu's kick with his right palm and using the taller genin's leg as support as he twisted his body around and used his other hand to catch Ryu's punch. Sasuke then brought his legs around to strike with his knees and feet, but Ryu countered by adjusted where his own caught arm angled so he could block the lower leg, and used his free arm to catch the one going for his head as he put his leg down, simultaneously giving himself more support while taking away Sasuke's.

Sasuke, realizing he was in trouble, reeled back with his suddenly freed hand and shot a fast jab towards Ryu's abs, but Ryu sensed this and instead jumped straight back at a high speed, surprised at Sasuke's resilience and ingenuity. Rolling his head around to loosen up his shoulder muscles, Ryu started bouncing on his feet and prepared for Sasuke's counter-attack, which he knew was coming any second now. Sasuke managed to angle the rest of his fall so that he landed on the cushioning of his shoulder and used that brief contact with a solid surface to roll himself around and to his feet, hiding the motion of his hands as he reached into his equipment pouch on his belt.

With a quick movement of his arms he threw a few smoke bombs that covered him from sight. Then he ran forward making seals. When he cleared the smoke, Ryu had moved position, but he was prepared for it. "_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu_!" Sasuke exclaimed and fired a large fireball at Ryu.

"_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu_!" Ryu exclaimed the same thing, both fireballs canceling each other out. To his surprise a pair of wires shot out from where the fireball had been. _'Hidden in the fire!'_ he realized as he avoided one of them, and he managed to block the second one just barely with his arm. The wire latched onto it, and Ryu briefly smiled. His clan was famous for advanced taijutsu and the training to go with it; he was no doubt stronger than the Uchiha, at least in taijutsu. He grabbed tightly, and pulled. Instantly the Uchiha shot forward – a little too instantly – yes, Sasuke had jumped with the pull; he had planned for the possibility. With the speed of both Ryu's yank and Sasuke's own jump, the distance was crossed too fast for Ryu to do anything about it. Sasuke reached Ryu feet first, and manage to land a solid kick to Ryu's chest. The taijutsu expert went with the impact, and let himself go upside down onto his right hand, and then twisted away to his left, in the process uncoiling himself from the wire.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out again, the fireball come straight at Ryu. Naruto's team mate shifted down, and shot underneath it, straight at Sasuke's leg with his own. The Uchiha quickly jumped backward as his technique came to end, avoiding Ryu. With a quick yank, Sasuke pulled the wire that Ryu earlier had avoided. The wire jumped up and surged forward, intending to catch Ryu by one of his legs or both of them. Impossibly Ryu smoothly jumped up, and the wire continued forward at Sasuke. The Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise when he saw an explosive note attached to the wire coming at him. Reflexes kicked in and he jumped back and away; the note exploding in a harmless puff – it had been a practice note, a blank. When Ryu had gone into a handstand Sasuke realized, it hadn't been just to uncoil himself from the second wire. Sasuke was annoyed, because he hated to admit even to himself, but he wasn't entirely sure if the note _had_ been real if he had managed to get away in time.

Taking another moment to pause and analyze what they'd seen from their respective opponent so far, the two confident young men stood apart, breathing deeply, alert, but with their postures relaxed as they stared at each other. They stood there for another couple minutes until they'd gathered their energy and formulated a plan, or five, on how to deal with, and counter, the other. Without a single word, having decided that words were useless as they would only serve to get on each others nerves, they charged forward to continue battle... er, sparring match. Not stopping until ordered to quit so they could finally go on their mission.

_Hayato and Kakashi_

Finally, Kakashi showed up, walking across the bridge to Area 7 while reading a book with a distinctive orange cover on it. He casually looked up to see his fellow Jounin Sensei supervising both teams in one-on-one sparring matches that might even be called mini-battles!

"Erhrm," he coughed, coming stealthily up beside Hayato. "I thought the point of joint missions was to get them to work together."

"It is," Hayato coolly replied, keeping an eye on the three ongoing matches, "but that's rather hard to do when there's so much tension in the air between the two teams that they'd sooner sabotage each other rather than work together. Letting them vent all the hostility seemed like a good idea at the time."

"They look like they're about to kill each other," Kakashi observed, putting his book away.

"Kasumi's still holding back," Hayato shrugged. "Sasuke and Ryu seem to be developing that rival atmosphere more than anything else, and Ayane looks like she's about to quit."

Kakashi observed the results of the 'sparring matches' so far. Naruto was still running circles around Ayane, though she landed a few good hits every now and then, he just kept getting back up and other than a couple bruises here and there, looked like he could keep this up for the rest of the day. Kasumi had finally gotten Sakura to start fighting back seriously, but still dominated the fight and was knocking the pink-haired girl around fairly often, but not to the point of true injury. Ryu and Sasuke, on the other hand, like Hayato said, seemed to be encouraging that familiar 'rivals' feeling between them.

The two were more or less even. Ryu seemed to have better conditioning, but at the same time, Sasuke seemed to outsmart or outmaneuver the taller brunette every other move. When one or the other got the better in the fight, they both paused for a moment, the better one rubbing in the small victory in the others face, and then in the next few seconds of the fight, that other one pulled some trick that was to their personal advantage and suddenly the roles were reversed until the next turn around.

"How long has this been going on now?" the masked jounin asked after a minute of watching.

"How late are you?" Hayato mercilessly responded.

Kakashi's visible eye went wide and he shot a shocked look at his fellow jounin before calling for a stop to the sparring match.

"Ara, that should be enough for today!" he called out loud.

The genin all stopped mid-move, except for Naruto, who only skidded to a halt when he felt Ayane no longer chasing him. They all turned and saw Kakashi now standing next to Hayato and realized that the sparring was over and all of them calmly walked over to the two jounin.

"YOU'RE LATE!!" Ayane and Sakura screamed, pointing wildly at their Jounin Sensei. Ayane was not normally to call people on their faults, especially not higher-ranked people, but she'd had a stressful morning.

"Ara, sorry about that," Kakashi sheepishly scratched the back of his scalp. "I had a nightmare last night and had to go tell my psychiatrist about it, but he wasn't in today, so I had to track him down before telling him about it and then I bought him an ice cream cone and they didn't have my favorite flavor and so I... what?"

"..."

Everyone just stared, then Hayato shrugged and commented, "Well, never let it be said you're not original, despite being consistent."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura wheezed, still breathing hard from her earlier fight... er, sparring match with Kasumi. "Is it true that we're doing joint-missions with Team One today?"

"Hai," the masked jounin nodded.

"Speaking of which..." Hayato trailed off, giving Kakashi a glare. "We were due at the Hokage Tower to get our missions an hour ago. That cuts into our break times, so no time to just sit around here resting, unfortunately." He grinned and the genin all groaned.

"Let's go ahead and get the missions then," Kakashi smiled beneath his mask and turned to head towards the Hokage Tower. The genin dutifully followed the two jounin, though each stood only with their own teams.

Half an hour later, they had retrieved their six missions and were being briefed on them.

"First up, to be expected, given how often that cat goes missing," Hayato briefed the combined teams, "Retrieve Missing Pet. Then we have Cleaning up Litter, Running Errands for the Elderly, Cleaning up the Monument, Help in Demolition of a Derelict Building, and something a bit out of the ordinary; a jounin has requested that both Teams come and work at his dojo during the evening. Apparently he wants his nighttime students to get some decent opponents in sparring."

"Is that really a D-Rank mission?" Ryu asked, surprised.

Kakashi shrugged and answered, "If the person is willing to pay for it, they can ask for just about anything. Even requesting specific teams for the missions."

"OK! Let's get started!" Naruto enthusiastically called out.

"Hey, how about we split up, that way you take half the missions, we'll take the other half, then we'll all meet up at the dojo later?" Kakashi suggested with a hidden smile.

"They get the Cat!" Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu all said at once.

Kakashi and all of Team Seven sweat-dropped.

"On second thought, this _is_ supposed to be a joint-mission for our teams," Kakashi quickly backpedaled.

"Let's just get this over with," Sasuke crossed his arms.

Team One shared looks with each other, then shrugged. The sentiment was equally shared by all of the genin and to be honest they couldn't agree more. They all quickly moved on to their first mission.

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_Evening_

Naruto felt the tick marks grow on his head for every single minute that he spent around the spoiled kids team. One might find some irony in that, if they looked real hard, but also the hard truth of it.

Uchiha Sasuke embodied all the _negative_ aspects that came with the Uchiha Clan that Naruto, Ryu, and Kasumi could recall from when they were still around, and maybe only about _three_ of the positive ones. He was arrogant, self-absorbed, convinced of his own superiority, and when confronted about it or given evidence to the contrary, he went all broody on everybody!

The _only_ good things about him, as far as Team One was concerned was that he was loyal to Konoha, he actually worked and worked together with them when it came to the mission, and he learned. Not quickly or easily, but at least he learned. There were probably other good things about the Uchiha, but it would require spending more time around him than any of the genin wanted to.

Mugen Ayane, however, was just as spoiled as the Uchiha it seemed. Kasumi said that Ayane and she were childhood friends and had been best friends growing up at the Academy. Ryu was also friends with her, but that mostly had to do with the fact that he could beat her at 'playing ninja' every single time, and she called him 'Ryu-sama' for that. Despite being friends with the girl though, she was insufferably arrogant and would often call others on it when they did not show the 'proper respect to their betters', most often Sakura and Naruto during the missions.

She was nice to Ryu and Kasumi and the two jounin, but Naruto just couldn't get over the fact that she seemed to be shoving in his face how much _better_ she was than him at every turn. It had really been getting on his nerves, but what really took the cake with him was the one point at which they had been paired off for the Running Errands mission. Kasumi had been paired with Sasuke, Ryu with Sakura, and then Naruto and Ayane had to help this really crotchety old lady clean her house and garden. _Every single move_ that Naruto made or tried to make, Ayane would criticize and correct him on without reservation, and to make it worse the old woman nagged him just as much.

Things did not get better after that, unfortunately.

It certainly didn't help that Naruto finally had all his illusions broken when Ryu and Kasumi both noticed his crush on Sakura during their first mission of the day, then spent the rest of the day asking him, in varying phrases, what on earth was he thinking?!

Ryu was the loudest and most argumentative about it, but Kasumi was the one to provide final proof by having a "private" conversation with Sakura between missions and without going into detail, things were said and Naruto heard what Sakura really thought about him and how much of a chance he _didn't_ have with her. It was cemented for him when in the final mission of the day, the sparring at the jounin's dojo, he tried to prove to Sakura that he really cared about her and was strong enough to best Sasuke, but she spurned his 'caring' at every turn and she did nothing but cheer Sasuke on and scream him out whenever it looked like he was doing better.

It hurt, but finally Naruto had to accept the truth. Sakura, while not hating him, wanted nothing to do with him. She was too fixated on Sasuke and Kasumi promised that with a girl like that, she would remain fixated for at least another two or three years. Naruto was not that patient.

The missions themselves were mostly straightforward. Thanks to additional manpower, they caught the cat without having to chase it all over Konoha, though not as fast as when working with Team Ten, faster than when each was on their own. Cleaning up litter and the Monument went fairly quickly, what with Team One using clones. Team Seven showed their talents and what Kakashi was training them for in the Demolition mission, unleashing a series of wide-range damaging attacks that caused wide-spread destruction in a short amount of time. Perfect for an Assault Team, Hayato commented after that mission.

The one that was more interesting and took the most time was the Dojo job. To Naruto and Ryu's surprise, the jounin that had requested the help was none other than their own master, Hayabusa Gouken!

The 'students' they were fighting also happened to be a number of Ryu's cousins and their friends from around town. Apparently, Gouken wanted to test his 'students' by having them fight real life ninja to gain experience and as a 'graduation test' to see who was ready for more advanced learning. It was mixed company, with both boys and girls as Gouken's students, but Gouken wasn't one to bother with gender issues, so he had all six contenders fight in the following order; Sakura first, Naruto second, Ayane next, then Sasuke, Kasumi and finally Ryu as the last contender. If one of the students could not beat them in that order, they could not move on to the next in line, nor would they 'graduate' if they couldn't get past Sasuke.

To everyone's surprise, more than half of Gouken's students couldn't even get past Naruto! Those that did claimed that Ayane and Sasuke were both 'easy' compared to Naruto, and only three students got past Kasumi to face Ryu, and only one actually fought the boy to a draw.

Naruto didn't bother listening to the 'praise' as he was mostly fighting to impress Sakura with how "serious" he could be, and he also viewed it as a test for him and Ryu from their sensei, and he didn't want to disappoint his taijutsu master.

After they were done with the day's missions, Naruto was half-dreading, half-expecting to be taken out to dinner like they had when they'd teamed up with the other two Rookie Genin Teams. Instead, after they left the dojo and reported all successes to the Hokage Tower, Kakashi wandered off the minute they stepped out of the tower, and without another word, the three from Team Seven went their separate ways, drawing surprised looks from Team One.

Hayato watched as they all walked off and sighed.

"They're not going to last past the first one of them making chuunin," he said to his team. "Some Teams you hear about, like the Ino-Shika-Cho, they stick together from genin to jounin and beyond. But more often than not, most teams are about the career and a matter of convenience. Most of that can be put at the jounin's feet, but then again, not everyone is a natural team like you three."

"I feel sorry for them," Kasumi commented as they all walked off together.

"I'm just glad today is finally over with," Ryu said, relieved. "No offense, Hayato-sensei, but can we make sure to _not_ get teamed up with them in the future? I'll understand if there are orders or there's need for additional support to an Assault Team, but at least for D-Rank missions, can we just... not? Please?"

Hayato chuckled and nodded his head. "I know what you mean. Guys like Kakashi get under my skin, and I'd rather spend as little time with him as possible. Fine. No more joint-D-Rank missions. At least not with Team Seven. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Ryu grinned back.

"Hey, what should we do tonight?" Naruto asked.

Kasumi suddenly grinned as she caught sight of a lone kunoichi on her way home. "I've got an idea. Hayato-sensei, this may bore you, so we'll see you tomorrow?"

"Still at Training Area 11," he told them as he grinned at Kasumi, having caught sight of the same person she had. He winked his approval at her, then leapt off into the night.

"Huh? Hey, what's the idea, Kasumi-chan?" Naruto asked, confused when Kasumi started dragging him down the street.

"Well, you were complaining about not going out to dinner earlier, right?"

"Uh, kind of..."

"So, we're going to go out for dinner. Or rather you, and she are," she then pointed over Naruto's shoulder at a specific person in the crowd.

Naruto's eyes went wide and his whole head turned red. "H-Hi-Hina-Hinata-chan?" he stuttered. The girl in question immediately hid the moment she thought Naruto had seen her.

"Yeah!" Ryu was suddenly on board with Kasumi's idea. "Hinata-_chan_. Except this time instead of a group outing or a double-date, it will just be you two!"

"Huh!! Wait, what? No, wait, I..." Naruto was scrambling in his mind for something to say or do.

"Tell you what, we'll help you out," Kasumi promised. "Ryu, go buy some violets. Naruto, listen to me very carefully and I promise everything will be OK. First of all, create a shadow clone and send him to ask Hinata out on a date with you for tonight. Right now in fact. And keep in mind, that it's a shadow clone asking for the date, not you. So you have nothing to worry about. If she doesn't want to or if she tries and hits you, it'll just be a shadow clone and you know how she feels without getting hurt yourself, all right?"

"Oh, well, OK, that sounds reasonable," Naruto shrugged and once he was calm enough, he created a single shadow clone and sent him chasing after Hinata while the real one stuck close to Kasumi.

"Now, we'll take things slow and keep you in your comfort zone for now. So let's go to Ichiraku Ramen, and Ryu and I will be hidden nearby in case you get into any kind of trouble. We'll be hidden, and you'll be able to sense us, but don't go looking at us every time you or Hinata say a word to each other. Just be yourself, talk about how your day went, ask her how her day went and _listen to her_ when she answers. Don't expect anything, from either yourself or her, just hang out with her the same way you hang out with Ryu and I. OK?"

Taking a deep breath, Naruto nodded and replied, "OK."

He suddenly blinked and then took off running, leaving Kasumi wondering if he'd gotten cold feet before he'd even gotten close to the girl. She ran off after him, calling his name, "Naruto!"

They ran for three streets, then just as they got to the fourth, Kasumi skidded to a halt and started smiling. Ryu showed up behind her with the violets and watched as Naruto picked Hinata up from the ground, which was apparently where she had fainted when his clone had asked her on a date. Ryu barely managed to contain his laughter, but he did manage.

A few minutes later, on Kasumi's suggestion, Naruto had carried Hinata all the way to Ichiraku Ramen and put her gently on the stool next to his. Both Kasumi and Old Man Ichiraku himself insisted upon waiting until Hinata was awake before Naruto could order food for him and his date. In the background, Ichiraku Ayame was smiling brightly and giggling every time she looked in Hinata and Naruto's direction.

When Hinata finally regained consciousness, the first thing she saw was a bouquet of her favorite flowers before her. The second thing she saw was Uzumaki Naruto staring at her with a genuine smile on his face. She smiled back, half believing this was a dream, until she recalled what had just happened to her. Naruto had asked her out on a date!

"Eep!" she squeaked and bolted upright in her seat. Funny, she could have sworn they were standing in the middle of the street a few seconds ago.

"Hey Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, "You're awake! Great! Now we can order!"

Hinata's face, which had already been flushed from her surprise, went a deep crimson as full realization dawned upon her. "A-ano..." she stuttered, looking all around like a cornered cat, trying to figure out what was going on and where she was.

Finally, she recognized her location as Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto's favorite restaurant in the village! Then there were the flowers, and Naruto sitting next to her, and...

She would have fainted again except that Old Man Ichiraku chose that moment to come out with a special bowl of miso ramen for the two of them, and the smell alone was sharp enough to remind her that she was hungry from doing a day full of missions and training.

"YAY! Itadakimasu!" Naruto practically screamed as he grabbed his chopsticks and prepared to eat.

"Ano..." Hinata's fingertips found their way to each other as she glanced all over, very confused.

This was just enough to stop Naruto cold, even with the ramen noodles halfway to his open mouth. Slowly, he put the noodles back in the bowl and turned solemnly to his eating companion.

"Hinata-chan," he said quietly and seriously, "I owe you an apology."

She made a noiseless sound, like a mouse squeak, and just stared at him, wide-eyed and unblinking.

"I... sent a shadow clone to ask you out earlier, instead of asking you myself," he admitted shamefully. "I understand if you didn't really want to go on a date with me, but you see..."

"N-n-n..." Hinata's stutter interrupted the rest of Naruto's apology. "N-Naruto-kun... wants to go on... a date, with... with me?" she asked in a daze.

He nodded at her and smiled.

He thought for a second, then decided an explanation was in order.

"You see, Hinata-chan," he began, "I had this huge crush on Sakura-chan. She was nice to me once before the Academy, and then I thought she was really pretty while we all went to the Academy."

Hinata suddenly turned downcast, her head facing her cooling bowl of ramen and her hands in her lap.

"Then she became one of the more popular girls at school and I thought that if she was my friend, then all her friends would be my friends too. So, I started asking her out all the time. After a while though, I guess it kind of became routine and I forgot why I really wanted to go out with her. I just knew that I wanted to and that I still thought she was pretty.

"But earlier today..." he stopped for a second, gathering his courage, so to speak, "Remember when our teams did that joint-mission thing, because my team is training to become a Support Team?"

Curious, despite where she feared this conversation would soon be going, Hinata shyly nodded her head.

"Well today we had a joint-mission with Team Seven, that's the team Sakura is on," he continued.

_'Not Sakura-_chan _any more, just Sakura,'_ Hinata noticed with a tiny bit of hope.

"She's just as obsessed with _Sasuke-teme_ as she ever was at the Academy. I tried to show her how I've changed, how I'm stronger and better than I was before, but... Kasumi-chan, my teammate, she had a talk with Sakura that I accidentally overheard." Naruto took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. "She pretty much tore me down worse than if she were my worst enemy. Afterward, while still doing one of the missions, I tried to show her I wasn't like what she said. She just shouted at me and any time I did even slightly better than her beloved Sasuke, she tore into me on his behalf. I think I know why they call them 'crushes' now."

He turned to face her fully and smile again, more warmly than she had ever seen him do before.

"I'm not saying this to make you feel down or anything, Hinata-chan, but..." he took another breath, "I finally realized that I need to stop chasing Sakura. She's not right for me, and she'll never really like me so long as she sees nothing but Sasuke. I was feeling really down for most of the afternoon, but then Kasumi-chan said something to me; 'There are a lot more girls out there that are a lot better to be with than just Haruno Sakura.' She also noticed how Team Seven doesn't seem to like going out to dinner after their missions like we did the past few times. So, uh, Kasumi-chan suggested that I ask you out. I... I hope that's OK."

Hinata was a whole mix of emotions at that moment and couldn't begin to sort them out. Rather than even begin to try, she decided to follow what her heart was telling her at the moment and took her courage in hand and said to the boy she was crushing on, "I... I... I..." or rather she _tried_ to say something.

The more she stuttered, trying to get the words out, the more embarrassed she became and soon her mortification overcame her courage. "I can—!"

"Sorry to interrupt here," Kasumi was suddenly there by Hinata's side and grabbed the girl by the shoulders. "Go ahead and let Naruto start on his ramen, Hinata and I need some girl-talk for a minute here."

Before anyone could say or do anything, the redhead and raven-blue haired kunoichi vanished around the corner of the shop, where they were soon joined by Ayame and none of the men could hear.

"Uh, what's that about?" Naruto questioned.

Ichiraku smiled at his favorite customer and patted the boy on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it gaki. Just be glad you've got such a nice teammate looking out for you. You didn't say anything wrong. In fact, I think you said everything right! Funny that..." The old man turned around muttering and started fixing the blond another few dozen bowls of ramen while the girls talked in the background.

Ten minutes and half a dozen bowls of ramen later, Hinata was back at Naruto's side, a rare smile on her face and her cheeks rosy with pleasure, rather than their usual crimson with embarrassment. "Ano," she spoke, "how was your day, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grinned widely and replied enthusiastically. "Well, it started off same as always, but like I said, we had to team up with Team Seven, or Team Stuck-Up as I like to call them after today. Still, I learned plenty and got some good training hours in!"

"I-I'm glad to, hear that, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata happily replied, finally taking a few bites of her own meal, which had been replaced with a fresh bowl when she sat down.

"How was yours?" he asked, looking forward to the answer.

Hinata briefly blushed crimson, but a glance over Naruto's shoulder showed her Kasumi giving her a wink and a thumbs-up. Her confidence restored, Hinata slowly, with only a couple stutters here and there, told Naruto about her day and what she'd done. He interjected with a few questions here and there and she always dutifully answered them with no hesitation.

After a while, they were carrying on conversations like they were childhood friends and Hinata was stuttering far less than ever before. Naruto even stopped eating after a bit, and not because he was full, but because he found talking with Hinata far more interesting than eating ramen. Ichiraku wasn't sure if he liked that, but one look at the pair sitting there and he forgot all about any lost business.

Two hours later, the two were still just talking, learning more about each other than they'd ever thought possible. When they both finally noticed the time, it was close to eleven at night. Naruto made sure to escort Hinata to her home once more, and they spoke the entire way, talking about things ranging from future plans (Naruto to be Hokage, Hinata to be Clan Head), the stars (Pretty), card games (Duel Monsters VS Chaotic), and even their teammates. Even when they finally got to the gates of the Hyuuga Clan Compound, they just stood there talking for another half hour, until finally Hinata's father came out and practically ordered her inside while glaring at Naruto the whole time. And boy could that man glare.

They said goodnight, shared a goodbye hug and Naruto left while Hinata walked in beside her father, seemingly stepping on clouds the whole way. Naruto and Hinata both had good dreams that night.

Kasumi and Ryu also both collected several bets from all around Konoha that had been ongoing ever since the last 'date' the Uzumaki and Hyuuga had had together. Life was good.

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_Hokage Tower_

_One Week Later_

"So, you finally believe that they're ready?" the Hokage said in a quiet voice to Hayato, who stood directly before him as the jounin's team stood further back behind their sensei.

Hayato did not say anything, instead he just nodded, once, not taking his eyes away from the Hokage's.

"Very well then. You get to tell them," the old man said after a moment of observing the crafty jounin.

Hayato sighed with a bit of relief, before turning around to face his team alongside the Hokage. "I'm not going to waste time or mince words," he finally said after a few seconds staring at them. "We're getting our first C-Rank mission."

Everyone waited for precisely one second, taking the time to take a deep breath and prepare themselves for what was inevitably due to follow this announcement..

"YATTA!!" Naruto screamed so loud that the chuunin on the Outer Wall surrounding Konoha heard him clearly. Some of them laughed, others exchanged money between certain people, while one white-eyed kunoichi looked in the direction of the shout and blushed before smiling and redoubling her efforts in her training.

"While I'm... just as... enthusiastic as Naruto," Ryu said, rubbing his ears in pain, "I've got to ask Hayato-sensei, what's changed? You said we had to _earn_ privileges and the right to receive higher ranked missions. For the past week, you've been cracking down on us harder than ever and made it seem like we were starting to fall behind. What gives?"

"You're right," the Hokage acknowledged the wisdom. "You do have to earn privileges and in the real world, which each of you are now a part of, you have to _prove_ that you can handle the missions you are assigned. Nobody is going to hand you an easy or a fun mission just because they like you, nor are they going to give you a more important mission just because you believe that you deserve it. Missions are given out because they are work that needs to be done, and everyone must prove in their own way that they can do the work before they're given the mission."

"Which is why I've been cracking down on you so hard for the past week," Hayato continued. "Your teamwork has always been decent, maybe even exceptional. Since I started you working with other teams, however, it has only gotten better. So, I pushed you as hard as I could without causing serious injury, and I've seen real progress. You're also right, Ryu, in that you were starting to fall behind, but not because of your lack of progress, but because the pace I was pushing you to meet was equivalent to wartime conditions."

"Huh?" all three genin were confused about that statement.

"I've been reading Hayato's reports on his training of you three," the Hokage picked up the conversation. "He's mostly right. The pace at which he's been training you, in teamwork, chakra control, chakra endurance, and ninjutsu is comparable to the training we put ANBU through when they first start out in the ANBU Black Ops program. And when Hayato was first trained as a genin, it was the tail end of the Third Great Shinobi War, and he's right in that we took graduates right out of the Academy and drilled them hard to become stronger and faster and more powerful as quickly as possible, focusing on the same areas that Hayato has been focusing you three on."

"There's also the fact that we're doing roughly three times the number of daily missions that the other rookie genin squads undertake," Kasumi pointed out.

"Again, something that may be outdated a bit, but for you three to accomplish your goal and become Konoha's best Support Team, or much rather a Rapid-Response Team, it is required," the Hokage countered.

"Rapid-Response Team?" Naruto repeated.

"The wartime name for a Support Team, Naruto," Sarutobi answered with a chuckle.

"Oh. Cool!" he grinned.

"Nevertheless, I agree with Hayato's assessment, given the sheer number of missions you three have accomplished already, as well as the impressive progress you've made in training. Therefore I am authorizing Team One to begin accepting C-Rank missions. Do you accept?"

The genin looked at the Hokage like they thought he was crazy or high or something, before all answering with a clear, sharp, "HAI!" The Hokage nodded with a smile and pulled out a specific folder and shouted at a door just off to the side of the room, "You can come in now!" The Hokage explained, "Your first C-Rank mission, Team One, is a simple escort/bodyguard mission, outside the walls of Konoha. This is the client, the person you'll be protecting and the one who is paying for the mission."

"Who is it? Some princess or famous actress?" Naruto pressed, barely able to contain his excitement.

The door opened slowly and in walked an old man.

"No, I do apologize, I am not a princess, young man," the old man said kindly, "but I have been known to put on a good show now and then." They all stared at him. He was tall, well over six and a half feet, almost seven in fact. He had pure white hair, held up by some kind of ornament on the top of his head for a topknot, while the rest went down to the middle of his back, and a long white beard that came down to the middle of his chest. He wore full-body robes of maroon and dark crimson, though overall there tended to be a flame motif in everything he wore.

"Sage Roku, it is an honor," Hayato suddenly clasped his hands together and bowed even with his waist as he kept his eyes on the client.

The old man, older than even the Hokage it would seem, chuckled, his eyes twinkling with merriment and bowed back at the young jounin, though not as deeply. He was an old man after all. "Thank you Hayato, it is good to see you again too," he said.

Turning back to the genin, he spoke, "As you have no doubt guessed, my name is Roku. Roku Aang Zuko. You may call me Roku, if you'd like. Hayato, for some reason, likes to call me Sage Roku. And I can't seem to get him to stop."

The Hokage chuckled as Hayato straightened, sending a reproving glare at his genin, yet keeping his face neutrally calm in front of their client.

"That is because, Roku Aang Zuko is also the _Tetsujin no Kaki_, the Fire Sage. The special adviser to both the Hokage and the Fire Lord. And, literally and figuratively, the most powerful man in the entire Fire Nation," Hayato informed them. "Oh, and he's the one that gave me my sword."

Ryu's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Naruto's jaw dropped to the ground. Kasumi's eyes went wide as her back unconsciously straightened and she came to full attention. Roku sighed, rolling his eyes in exasperation as his hopes for avoiding unnecessary fawning over his status all came to naught.

Then the moment was ruined by Naruto shouting out and pointing at the Fire Sage, "No way! You actually gave Hayato-sensei that damned chakra sword of his! THAT IS SO COOL!"

Roku blinked, as did most of the rest of the people in the room. That certainly wasn't the reaction one would expect after hearing they were in the presence of a man that held the ear of an entire country, not to mention untold wealth, power, and potentially weapons of mass destruction. Let alone whatever physical capabilities he may or may not have been able to perform. Finally, the old man smiled, happy that at least one of his guards on this sojourn would treat him like a normal person.

Ryu also seemed to be hung up on the fact that it was Roku who'd given Hayato his special weapon, though he was just as aware of who he was speaking to. Still, the poor boy couldn't help but blurt out, "Uh, can I have one too?"

Roku stared at the overwhelmed genin, then burst out laughing.

"Hah, hah, hah! We'll see, young man, we'll see!" he said as he finally got the laughter under control. "Tell me, what are your names. Please, introduce yourselves."

Naruto grinned and exclaimed, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm going to be Hokage some day, believe it!"

"I do believe you, you have the same look in your eyes that I've seen only three times now in men that were destined and did become Hokage of Konoha," Roku said to the energetic blond. "I will pay very close attention to your career as a shinobi, young Uzumaki Naruto. Young lady, your name?"

Blushing after Naruto's outburst, Kasumi went next. "I am Tenshin Kasumi of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, honored sir. Younger sister to Tenshin Hayate, Clan Leader and the Champion of Tournaments."

"Hm, yes, I've seen him fight a few times," Roku commented. "I had heard that Ein had a younger sister. I look forward to seeing how good you are on your own, young lady. And finally, the one that wants his own sword, your name?"

"Hayabusa Ryu, of the Hayabusa Clan, sir!" the youth stated, refusing to blush from his earlier gaff. "I... apologize, it was rude of me to..."

"Nonsense, young man," Roku waved off the apology. "How do you think Hayato got his little trinket? He asked me for it. But for now, I do not know you as well as I know him, so we will have to see how worthy you are of receiving your own... trinket. Yes, we will have to see indeed."

There was a few tense moments in the air as Roku looked Team One over from head to toe, seemingly looking right through them into their very depths and learning all their secrets just by staring at them. Frozen to the spots upon which they stood, they all remained as still as mice while Roku inspected them. Finally, he broke his gaze upon them and looked back to the Third Hokage with an easy grin.

"Yes, Hiruzen, these will do fine," the Fire Sage spoke to the Hokage once introductions were complete. "We will depart in the morning. To save you the time of a briefing, you will be escorting me from Konoha back to my home in the Capitol just over the mountains. Not a great distance, but always better safe than sorry, I always say. I also like to be prepared for just about anything. While I am a prominent figure, we are not in a time of war, nor have our intelligence indicated that any of the other countries or Hidden Villages are particularly interested in me at this time. Therefore we are expecting nothing more than bandits or maybe a few political malcontents as harassment along the journey at the worst."

"I'd also like to make it clear, I am not a fool. I do not view you as servants, tools, weapons, or anything of the kind," he told them. "I view you as those that will guard me with their lives and I will treat you as such. You deserve no less from me. I was also genuine in my request that you may call me Roku, but however you prefer to, you may address me as you see fit."

"OK, Roku-jisan!" Naruto agreed, smiling. He sent the Fire Sage into another fit of laughter.

"I like you boy," Roku said, also smiling. "We leave tomorrow morning, from the North Gate. Fastest, most direct way to the Capitol from Konoha."

"Uh... it also takes us through the mountains," Hayato pointed out with a frown.

"Where bandits like to hide out," Ryu picked up on his sensei's concerns.

"And there are no rest stops or cities to rest in, and it would still be a journey of at least a week," Kasumi pointed out, though not for herself, but rather their client as he was clearly an elderly man and should not be roughing it with a long, hard trek through the mountains and camping outdoors.

"Oh nonsense," Roku waved off their concerns. "I'm tougher than I look, and most of the bandits target the highways between all those comfort cities. Also to be quite honest, I'd rather avoid the tourist traps. Besides, I rarely get a chance to sleep out under the stars anymore. And if that's not enough to convince you, I'm the one paying for the mission, and I say we leave at first light tomorrow morning from the North gate and take the shortest, most direct route from here to the Capitol."

Hayato sighed and nodded, "Very well, Sage Roku."

"Heh heh heh, Roku-jisan, you rock!" Naruto was enjoying seeing his Jounin Sensei treated like a kid.

"Yes, I am definitely going to like you, Naruto," Roku chuckled. "See you all in the morning."

Hayato sighed, then nodded at his genin. "You heard him. North Gate, Five AM. Training is canceled for the rest of today. Go home, get your rest, because you are going to need it. Also, triple check all your equipment tonight before you go to sleep, make sure you have everything."

"Hai!" Team One snapped to attention and then left quickly to prepare for their first C-Rank mission!

TBC!


	4. First C Rank

Summary: Team One has been assigned their first C-Rank Mission, protecting a very important person on a journey from Konoha to the Capitol of the Country of Fire.

Disclaimer: Squad 1 is lead by Sergeants Ryo and Koma aka "Anubis" and consist of Kento, Cye, Rowan, and Sage. Each are based off of the "Ronin Warriors" and their armors and weapons even look identical. Koma is Anubis's original human name before he put on the Armor of Cruelty/Loyalty. _Ronin Warriors_ is owned by Sunrise, Inc.

Squad 2 is lead by Sergeants Heero and Zechs, and consist of Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wu Fei. Each is based off of the gundam pilots from "Gundam Wing" and their armors and weapons are 'samuraized' versions of their respective gundams and weapons. _Gundam Wing_ is also owned by Sunrise, Inc.

Soundtrack:

"First Encounter" - Green Day's "Do You Know The Enemy" on their _World Breakdown_ album

"Mountain Fight" - Nickelback's "Animals" (minus lyrics) from their album _All The Right Reasons_

"Kyuubi no Kitsune" - Linkin Park's "In The End" of their _Hybrid Theory_ album

Story:

The morning started off very early for the genin of Team One. Having gotten used to being up by 5 and 6 AM so they could get to their training as ninja with their Jounin Sensei at 7, it was quite another to be at the North Gate prepared for a long-term protection detail mission in the wilderness and still be there at 7 o'clock on the dot. Surprisingly, their client, the Fire Sage Roku was already there waiting for them, still in his red maroon robes from the day before, but he also had a hiker's backpack as well as a packing mule standing nearby. He sat on a bench near the guardhouse that was just inside the North Gate.

"My oh my, what is it that has you three so exhausted?" Sage Roku asked them, putting on the air of a 'concerned grandfather' when he saw the bags under their eyes and their slow gait towards him.

"Couldn't sleep," Naruto said while yawning, "Too excited."

"Packing and preparing everything that I would need," Kasumi dully replied, "Plus I had a... conversation with my brother about several things. It was a long night."

"Late-night training," Ryu grunted. He stopped yawning and was now trying to catch up on the sleep he'd missed while he could. He'd learned how to sleep standing up a long time ago. Through necessity.

Everyone turned to face Ryu, surprise evident on all of their faces.

"Your family had you _training_ half the night away?" Roku questioned.

"My _clan_," Ryu corrected, fighting another yawn, "insisted upon testing me to prove that I'm capable. Besides, I just haven't had my coffee yet this morning. Hayato-sensei usually gives us enough time to have breakfast before meeting him. I got all the sleep and rest that I needed for the night, it's just too damn early."

"Someone's not a morning person," Kasumi teased.

"Talk to me again in an hour, after I've either had exercise, or coffee. Preferably both," he said.

"I don't think we have the time for the latter, but I'll be glad to provide plenty of exercise," Hayato's voice came from directly behind him.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" all three genin jumped up, the surprise from their sensei popping up like he usually did wiping away their exhaustion with adrenaline. "DON'T DO THAT!!"

"Good, you're on time," Hayato grinned at them, ignoring their exclamation.

"You know, we're not all as young as we appear to be, Hayato," Roku admonished the jounin, holding his own heart and breathing heavily. "Please refrain from scaring us like that for the duration of this mission."

"Hai, Sage Roku," Hayato nodded, keeping his face neutral and expressionless.

Ryu suggested Hayato do something both rude and anatomically impossible, before getting his breathing back under control and slumping up against the side of the gate. He was in his black 'mission' clothes, pitch black pants and boots with ninja-mesh armor covering his torso and a skintight black shirt over that. Currently his hood was hanging loose around his neck and his mask was also held down, with his Konoha headband covering his forehead as always.

Kasumi sighed as the adrenaline slowly left her system, leaving her just as exhausted as before. She was dressed very differently, however, from what everyone was used to seeing her in. It was very similar to what Ryu was wearing, only more feminine and with different styles. It was all black, the pants allowing for a freedom of movement, while being strapped tight against her shins by shin-guards and boots that appeared to be woven into the outfit. The top was a tight black sleeveless tunic, black-colored ninja-mesh armor beneath it, leaving her upper arms bare while she wore ninja armored gauntlets on both arms. Her chestnut reddish-brown hair, which she usually left up in a ponytail, was now hanging loose around her shoulders and down her back. Her Konoha headband was secured into her equipment belt at her waist.

Naruto, right behind his teammates, was also dressed and ready for the mission. He was wearing the outfit that Kasumi and Ryu had helped him buy from O'aka's, black steel-toed boots, dark ANBU-regulation pants, ninja mesh body armor covered with a dirty orange flak jacket and the black and orange tiger stripe armored jacket that came to his knees, not counting the shuriken holsters, specialized bracers and equipment pouches and black-cloth headband made the normally happy-go-lucky boy look like a real shinobi. He had also been yawning, but now he didn't look nearly as tired as his two teammates.

"Well then, I do believe we're all here, so let us..." Roku stopped talking as he caught sight of something in the distance. His bodyguards from Konoha to the Capitol also noticed the approaching dust cloud, and before too long they identified it as an approaching horse-drawn coach, moving at very high speeds.

"Oh dear," Roku sighed, looking suddenly weary, "I had hoped to have left before she'd gotten here."

"Uh, who?" Naruto asked, even as he got his answer as the horses and carriage came to a halt right in front of the gates to Konoha. It was expensive looking with red paneling and gold highlights. It screamed wealth with every seam.

"My granddaughter," Roku sighed again, "Or rather, great-granddaughter, Ozai Azula."

"Wait a minute," Ryu blurted out. "_Ozai_, as in... _the_ Ozai family?!"

"My granddaughter, Azula's mother, married into the family. Or rather, as I like to think of it, their son married into mine." Roku grinned at the youths, before turning to face the carriage and stepping out to meet the occupant.

The door on the carriage was immediately opened by a footman and out stepped a tall, handsome young woman, only a couple years older than the genin themselves, her midnight black hair tied up in a bun, her flawless white skin lightly colored with make-up, and she was wearing a form-fitting royal red and gold Chinese-style dress with a slit up to the knee on both sides.

"Grandfather! There you are!" she cried out in a cultured alto. "When Mother and I heard you were on your way home, I just couldn't resist the temptation of escorting you there myself, so I called up our dear cousin to offer me some aid in retrieving you to the Capitol! Cousin... oh what's his name?"

"The Daimiyo," the Fire Sage informed her. "Azula-chan, you did not have to come all this way just to escort me back. Besides, Hiruzen and I came to an understanding about a few things. The least of which is that I give at least some patronage to Konoha while I'm here, and so I've hired these ninja to escort me home. Honestly Azula-chan, you are always so impetuous. Why did you bring so many men with you anyway?"

"Father insisted upon it," she replied, sounding bored. Then her eye caught on the ninja standing just behind her great-grandfather. "Well, hello there. You four must be the ninja Grandfather is referring to. Honestly, you could afford to _buy_ all of Konoha and it wouldn't dent our coffers, why did you buy so few, Grandfather?"

Roku just sighed and rolled his eyes up to the heavens, as though praying for patience.

"HEY!" Naruto screamed, losing his temper.

The shout startled most everyone around, except of course for his team, who were used to sudden outbursts from him by now. Azula's eyes went wide and she took a step back in fright, not used to getting yelled at by anyone, in fact more used to being the one doing the yelling while everyone else apologized to her. Well, everyone except for her mother, grandmother and great-grandfather. They were the only ones that were strict with her and treated her as a person, not something as fragile as a silk-thin glass ornament.

"For your information, _hime_," he got right up in her face, which was difficult as she was taller than he was, "Roku-jiisan did not _buy_ us! He hired us for a mission, to protect him and escort him back to his home! And I promised to do just that after meeting him, and I keep my word! That's my nindo, my ninja way!"

Then he took it a step further and he poked her high on her chest, saying further, "Not that a spoiled brat like you understands the meaning of keeping a promise! Even if you are Roku-jiisan's great-granddaughter, I can tell you're nothing like him! So just shut up, get back in your fancy schmancy ride, go back to where you came from and let us do our jobs, ALL RIGHT!"

Azula blinked, more than a little stunned by such an outright accusation.

"I'm sorry, but who are you and what gives you the right to address me, _or_ my Grandfather in such... undignified terms?" she frowned at him, drawing herself up to her full height once she'd composed herself.

Naruto just smirked, rather than cower as she had expected him to do.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha, and the ninja assigned to protect your great-grandfather, even if it means from spoiled brats like you!" he proudly informed her.

Most everyone sweat-dropped at that last bit, except for Roku himself, who was struggling not to burst out laughing at any second from the same scene. When Azula noticed this, she became very confused. She knew her great-grandfather was a bit of an eccentric, (he was the most powerful man in several countries, Hi no Kuni only being the primary and all he did was live the 'quiet' life and travel around 'visiting old friends'), but she had seen him tear other powerful men to pieces before (not literally) for showing as much disrespect as Naruto had just shown her.

"Grandfather!" she protested his restrained laughter.

"Naruto, may I introduce my great-granddaughter, Ozai Azula, Fourth Princess of Hi no Kuni and 174th Princess in the Dynasty," the Fire Sage spoke after finally conquering his need to laugh out loud. "Azula, as he already introduced himself, this is Uzumaki Naruto, one of my bodyguards until I arrive home. This is Hayabusa Ryu of the Hayabusa Clan. This is Tenshin Kasumi of the Mugen Tenshin Clan. And this is their Jounin Sensei, Kanzaki Hayato."

Azula blushed to match her dress as she realized the blunder she'd made far too late. It was not this... Naruto that had been the rude one, but she herself. He had just been returning her rudeness back at her, as her mother and grandfather had often warned her would happen in the real world.

Stepping back and lowering her head in a gesture of submissiveness and apology, she spoke to the Konoha-nin before her, "My apologies. I spoke hastily in my joy at seeing Grandfather once more. I meant no offense, Uzumaki-san. Forgive me?" she batted her eyes at him, looking at him through her lashes in a seductive glance she'd seen women of the court sometimes do.

Naruto blinked, surprised at the sudden change of tone from the young woman before him. Scratching his head in confusion, he looked back and forth between her and the Fire Sage. Seeing Roku nod and smile at him, Naruto grinned wide and enthusiastically pronounced to the black-haired noble, "Sure! No harm, no foul, right? I forgive you, no problem."

Then he turned his back on her and walked back to stand next to his teammates as though that were the end of the matter. Azula, on the other hand, was left flabbergasted, not having expected that reaction at all. But then again, she said to herself, judging Naruto by his appearance, he didn't look as though puberty had hit yet so he probably wasn't really affected by her sex appeal in the slightest. Oh well, she shrugged, it's not like it matters anyway.

"Very well then," Azula snapped herself back to attention, turning to address her great-grandfather once more, "I'm certain there is more than enough room in the carriage for one of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, and the others can certainly fit in well with the soldiers Father requested I bring along..."

"Azula-chan," Roku interrupted her.

"Yes, Grandfather?" she replied, looking up at him with wide innocent eyes.

"Where is the commander of this unit, if you please?" he gestured to the soldiers, all 100 of them standing at attention behind the carriage.

"Oh, uh," she was at a loss for a moment before turning and calling out, "Captain Sokka? Captain Sokka! If you wouldn't mind..."

"Yes, thank you Azula-chan," Roku waved his great-granddaughter off. "Please wait while I discuss somethings with the Captain. Hayato?" Immediately the jounin was joining the conversation between the Fire Sage and the guard captain.

"Wonder what that's about?" Naruto idly commented to his teammates, ignoring the spoiled princess only a few paces away from them.

"Knowing Hayato-sensei, he'll let us know eventually. When it's most inconvenient for us," Ryu said.

"You're probably right," Naruto and Kasumi both agreed.

Over by the adults, Hayato, Roku, and Captain Sokka began discussing what it was they were going to do now. Sokka looked less than pleased with Azula dragging him and his men all the way to Konoha for nothing it seemed, Roku was highly annoyed with his great granddaughter, but more so with the ones in authority that let her come here on a whim, while Hayato was just trying to figure out the best possible way to ensure his and his team's success in their mission without pissing off the wrong people.

"Captain Sokka, may I ask what your specific orders were, when you were given this assignment?" Roku asked the soldier, after introducing the captain and the jounin to each other.

"To put it bluntly, sir," Sokka replied, "Protect Miss Azula, and yourself, and ensure both of you return to the Capitol without harm. Specifically, that is all I was told."

"Personally, Seijin Roku-sama, I have no objection to taking the main roads to the Capitol..." Hayato spoke with the utmost respect to the Fire Sage in front of strangers. _Especially_ one of the Fire Lord's soldiers.

"Actually, we left only three days after you were reported to be in Konoha, sir," Sokka mentioned to Roku. "That was over two weeks ago, if I recall correctly, and we came via those same roads, stopping only after sundown and at every inn and hot spring along the shortest route. Also, there were preparations for several celebrations being set up. Celebrations, which I was told would be happening during the next month."

Both men looked at the soldier with disbelieving eyes before sighing and rolling their eyes to the heavens for patience and peace.

"Well, I don't know about you, Hayato," Roku grumbled, "but I do not feel like traveling for another _month_ just to get home, when the pass through the mountains will have me there within the week! Captain, I leave it up to you if you wish to follow us or simply return my great granddaughter home, either way I assure you that you and your men will be compensated for your trouble."

"Thank you sir, but most of our gear can't make it through that mountain pass, and I have my orders."

"Yes, to make sure Azula makes it home safely," Roku told him. "I have hired my own protection and escort, thank you very much. Also, four ninja and an old man do not attract nearly as much attention as a contingent of soldiers _and_ ninja struggling over the mountains on the most direct, shortest route between Konoha and the Capitol. The best way you can ensure mine and my granddaughter's safe return, Captain, is by taking her straight back home and letting me and my hired escort go our own way. Azula is known to travel through the countryside on a whim, so nothing untoward or suspicious should happen, and as I said, no one will suspect who I am or my intentions if the party is kept small and ordinary."

"No offense, sir, but you are very recognizable," Sokka pointed out.

"And did it occur that maybe I have a change of clothes in my gear?" Roku jerked his thumb over at the stuffed backpack, still leaning up against the bench beside the gate. "It will take us a day to reach the foothills, another half a day to reach the base of the mountain and get to the pass. And then only two or three days at the most to get through the pass and to the guardhouse on the other side, where I will then be within a days walking distance of my home. No, I refuse to go through three _weeks_ of roadside travel and overbooked inns and festival traffic when a short hike through the mountains will get me there just the same. Captain, as I said, it is your choice, but my advice is to take my great granddaughter home, maybe even take the time to enjoy those celebrations yourselves, and let me and my escorts go our own way."

"Sir, I must protest..." he started to say, but a hard look and a raised hand from Roku silenced him.

"Don't worry Captain," Hayato clasped the man by the shoulder, "My team and I are very good at our duties. I also owe Sage Roku a lifetime of debts, so you can be sure that I will be very motivated in making sure he is safely returned to his home. If it would make you more comfortable, we could take a small number of your men, maybe even yourself along with us. No more than ten, though. Any more and we would attract the wrong sort of attention. As it is, it will just look like a wealthy old merchant going to deliver his goods. Bandits are no problem, it's the other kind of attention that we're trying to avoid here, you understand?"

"I do, more than you think I do," Sokka said to the jounin. "Ultimately, however, what we do will be up to Miss Azula. If she insists on staying by your side, Roku-sama..."

"Then you'll follow my orders over hers, and personally escort her to the Capitol along the safer route," Roku said sternly.

"... Of... course, sir," Sokka sighed, looking like he wanted to cry.

The discussion apparently over, Roku turned back towards where Azula and the genin were all waiting, Hayato and the Captain following along behind him. Seeing the adults approach, the youths all sprung to attention, even Azula who respected her Sage relative a great deal, and that shone through in her posture.

"Azula-chan, my dear," Roku approached her and kissed her lovingly on the forehead, "It has been good to see you, and I do appreciate that you came all this way just to see me, but I have been away from home too long, and would much rather get back home sooner rather than later. I will be going home through the mountain pass, with the ninja that I have already hired to escort and protect me."

"But Grandfather," Azula immediately protested, not caring that she was in front of strangers, "there are bandits in the mountains. They might... attack you, or something."

"Hence why I will be protected by Hayato, Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu," Roku pointed out to her. "Don't worry Azula-chan, I will be fine, and back home before the week is out."

"But... I wanted to spend some time with you. You never have time for me when you're at home," she whined. Roku sighed.

"Yes, and I am sorry about that. I have spoken with the Captain and he agrees with me, it would not be prudent to take all of these men that you brought with you through the mountain pass. We would be attacked for sure, and not just by bandits, but by those that we'd rather avoid the attention of. I'm sure you understand."

"I do, but..."

"You are free to do as you wish, Azula-chan," Roku said. "As am I. I have decided to take the mountain pass. Most of the soldiers are going back the way that you came, the Captain included. I advise you to go with them, enjoy the celebrations and festivals that will be happening as you pass. I will see you when you finally get home." He chuckled.

Azula fumed for a moment, then suddenly her face lit up as she said out loud, "Then I will go with you."

"WHAT?!!" the soldiers and ninja all screamed. Roku smiled rather knowingly.

"As I said, you are free to do as you wish, but I strongly advise you to go back with the Captain the safer route," Roku told her.

Azula seemed to consider this for several moments, before turning to address the Guard Captain.

"Captain Sokka! Assign a detachment from your men and ration out only the essentials that I and my grandfather will need for our journey. Then take the rest of your men and do as Grandfather suggested and go to the festivals and celebrations. Those that do not go with us have the time off from their duties. Uh... How many men would you suggest that we take with us, Captain?"

Sokka had to give the spoiled princess some credit, for asking him his opinion rather than Roku's, or worse just deciding on her own. "To be honest, I would normally say all of them," he sighed. "But in this case two squads should do. Any more and you'd just be asking for trouble. Sergeant Ryo! Sergeant Heero!"

Two armored guards detached themselves from the rest and ran forward, coming to attention before their Captain. They were both young, probably no older than 19. One was wearing mostly red armor with a pair of katana strapped to the back, the other silver-white armor with dark blue highlights with weaponized shield on his back and a saber strapped to his waist. The one in red armor had wild-looking solid black neck-length hair and blue eyes. The other had short-cut messy brown hair and hazel brown eyes.

"Sergeant Ryo," the Captain addressed the one in red armor, "gather your squads and ration your supplies from the caravan. We'll be giving you a single cart and horses. You and your men will be directly responsible for the safety of Miss Azula and Fire Sage Roku. Hop to it."

"Sergeant Heero," he turned to the remaining soldier after Ryo had run off to follow orders. "Gather your men and as many weapons and supplies for yourselves that you think you will need. If you feel that you need to, you may enlist two others from the rest of the men, one for each squad. The goal of this endeavor is stealth above all else. Expect bandit attacks. Both you and Sergeant Ryo will answer to the jounin ninja, Kanzaki Hayato, who answers directly to Sage Roku. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" Sergeant Heero snapped a salute.

"Get to it then. Who do you have in mind for the two extras?"

"I was thinking... Zechs and Koma, sir," he replied.

Sokka nodded in approval. "Good. Get them, be ready in half an hour, no later. The rest of us will be moving out shortly after, with the Sage's approval, we'll escort you to the highway where we will then depart."

Roku sighed again, but nodded and answered, "That will be fine Captain. Thank you."

_Highway to Mountain Pass_

_Three Miles From Konoha_

_One Hour Later_

The group of eighteen watched as the column of soldiers all marched off in the direction of the nearest town, which was another fifteen miles in the other direction, but since they all had the next few weeks off as they slowly made their way back to the Capitol, most of them were in good spirits. The twelve soldiers assigned to guard Azula and her great grandfather (in that order, by order of the Sage himself), were in loose formation and had taken off their armor and most of their weapons. Ryu, Naruto and Kasumi were standing close together, the boys both rather relaxed and Kasumi demonstrating the good posture she was raised to possess. Hayato was by Roku's side and very little could get the jounin much further than a dozen feet from his client.

Once the soldiers were out of sight, the group started off in the direction of the mountains, thankfully which were only another twenty miles away, so they would be there by nightfall. The guards took up a standard escort formation, four in front, four in back, one on the cart, one on either side of the cart, and one roving between the front and back positions. Roku and Hayato chose to walk ahead of the cart, while the genin ran alongside in the trees, scouting ahead and around the group to make sure there were no surprises. Azula, after half a mile, had complained about blisters on her feet and was put on the seat of the cart next to the guard/driver.

Before having left, both Azula and Roku had changed their clothes, Roku into the commoner's clothing that he'd had in his backpack, which he was also wearing and for all appearances was merely an old merchant mountaineer going with his goods on a day trip through the mountains. Azula had, unfortunately, left behind almost _all_ of her clothing with the rest of the soldiers and finally had to go and buy something at a Konoha vendor so she could wear something other than fine embroidered cloaks, silk dresses and high-heeled shoes.

"So," Naruto asked as he came up on Roku and Hayato at the head, "how did you meet Hayato-sensei, Roku-jiisan? I know you gave him that sword he uses, but you had to have known each other before that. Was it on a mission, like this one?"

"Something like that," Hayato answered shortly.

Roku chuckled and repeated, "Yes, something like that indeed."

"Oh, do tell the tale, Grandfather. You always tell such marvelous tales!" Azula said enthusiastically.

"I'm kind of curious myself," Ryu said, passing alongside them as he patrolled.

"There's not really a story behind it," Hayato said.

"Unfortunately true," Roku sighed, yet still smiling. "The simple matter of it is that I met Hayato here when he was still just a genin. Only about seven or eight years ago by now. I was visiting Hiruzen, the Hokage. I believe it was to discuss that year's Chuunin Exams. Hayato was a hopeful to enter that year, but his team had been split up, due to injury, and the Jounin Sensei refusing to submit their names for entry."

"It was entirely by chance that we ran into each other, wasn't it?" the Sage asked him.

"Some would see it that way," Hayato stated, not saying anything else. Those listening in sweat-dropped in exasperation.

"I was on my way to have some lunch at a ramen stand I knew had good food..." Roku continued.

"Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto interrupted with a loud shout. "They're the best at making ramen!"

"Ah yes, Ichiraku and his daughter. I've heard he's become even better over the years," he remarked. "Anyway, as I was headed there, I just happened to pass by an argument in the street, where Hayato's Jounin Sensei was screaming at him and the kunoichi of the team and berating them being unable to take part in the Chuunin Exams. What was his name again?"

Hayato's stare had gone stone-cold and there was a tension around him that hadn't been there a few minutes ago. "_Rokusho Aoi_," he hissed, the hate almost dripping from his voice.

"Nukenin from Konoha, stole the Second Hokage's _Raijin no ken_ and is thought to have defected to Ame, Hidden Rain," one of the guards spoke in monotone – it was the Sergeant, Heero Yuy. "He was your Jounin Sensei?" he asked Hayato.

"Along with Morino Idate and Lin June," Roku answered for the stoic jounin. "Whatever did happen to June, Hayato?"

He did not answer.

Instead, he slapped Sergeant Heero on the shoulder and told him, "I'm taking my team for some field training. We'll be nearby. Stick to the road until we get to the foothills."

Heero was silent for a few seconds, before nodding and turned back to his duty. Hayato gathered Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi and pulled them off the side of the road and up into the trees still surrounding them on all sides.

"What was that all about?" Ryu wanted to know.

"Never mind," Hayato growled, or as close as he'd ever come before. "One of the things you all still need to work on is your tracking skills. Following a person's chakra is one thing, but sometimes what you'll be tracking or following won't have a chakra signature. Pay attention, because you know how I hate to repeat myself. I _hate_ to repeat myself."

They gulped and nodded, paying close attention to everything he said.

As much as they learned by accident by tracking the 'Damn Cat' and by working with Team Eight, Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu learned almost a lifetime's worth more from personal instruction from their Jounin Sensei. He showed them tracking on the ground, in the trees, how to identify if the one that passed through was a ninja, civilian or something else, and how to gain more information from those tracks than they could if the one being tracked was standing right in front of them.

A few hours later, on the edge of the forest right before they would enter the foothills countryside, Hayato told them to rejoin their client and tell the guards and Roku to stop for lunch once they reached the stream only a mile ahead. While he was gone, Hayato set up a little test for his genin in regards to their tracking skills. Once he rejoined the group, just as they were resting the horses and getting out the food, he spoke with Roku for a moment. The old man tried to apologize for earlier, but Hayato waved him off, telling him that it didn't really matter. He'd gotten over Idate's and Aoi's betrayal a long time ago, but everybody has their sore spots. He did have one other thing to say about it though.

"Do not _ever_ talk about June in front of my genin again, got it old man?" Hayato growled at the Fire Sage, putting his face so close that no one but Roku could hear him. "After that... incident, she tried to commit suicide. I stopped her, thankfully, but she hasn't ever been the same since. She's been made an _honorary_ chuunin and works at the Konoha Ninja Library. Stop," he kept the old man from saying anything, "I don't want to hear it. Aoi was a traitor and I don't give a shit about him one way or the other. But do not mention June again. Understood?"

Roku was silent for a moment, before lowering his eyes in remorse and nodding his head.

"Good. I'm going to take my genin on a short little test here. Leave by one-thirty at the latest, even if they're not back yet. I'll be observing them at the time, but I'll still be watching," he told him.

"... I'm sorry," Roku tried to apologize again.

"Don't be. What happened with June was actually her father's fault and if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have been able to save her in time. So... thanks, again." Hayato then walked off and had to drag his genin away from the lunch the guards were preparing.

"Aww! How come we don't get to eat! You're not making us eat those ration bars for the whole mission, are you?!" Naruto complained.

"No, he wouldn't do that," Ryu said, then looked uncertain, "Would he?"

"No, I wouldn't," Hayato answered. "But I would take the lunches you prepared for yourselves and hidden them in the wilderness in places that you'll only be able to find using the tracking skills I just taught you. You have one hour."

"WHAT!!!" all three of them screamed, Kasumi already diving for her own pack to find the boxed lunch missing. Then she noticed something else.

"Wait a minute, I had more than just today's meal in here! ALL my food is missing!" she cried.

"Well, I did keep this," Hayato held an instant ramen pack and tossed it between his hands. "Help your teammates find their food, Naruto, and I'll not only give this back to you, I'll have it prepared and waiting for you the minute you get back."

Naruto, on the verge of yelling the jounin's ear off, stopped himself and turned to his teammates. Demonstrating a surprising control of his temper, he just grunted and said to them, "Let's go, clock's probably already started and knowing how Ryu likes his beef, wild animals might be getting into it as we speak. We don't have as much time as we might think to find it all."

"...I hate you." Ryu deadpanned to the jounin then followed his friend's advice and all three of them ran off, looking for specific signs in the environment to help them in finding the boxed lunches. It only took five minutes of individual searching before Naruto used his shadow clones to help with the search.

"What are they doing?" Azula asked her great grandfather as they were eating sushi with the guards.

Roku chuckled and answered, "Hayato decided to take the opportunity to instruct his students in proper tracking methods. As a test of their learning, he hid their lunches and gave them specific signs to look for in order for them to retrieve their meal. Knowing him though, he probably just left false trails in the forest and then kept their boxed lunches for himself!"

"Nope, already checked there," a Naruto-clone replied as he passed, looking all over the grass and dirt around them. "His food has got seals on them too, so we couldn't just steal his either. Hey Captain-san, got some snacks that we can borrow for a bit? It's taking longer than we thought to find our lunches."

Sergeant Sanada Ryo laughed then shrugged as he tossed three ration bars, grain-flavored, to the clone. "No problem kid. By the way, I'm not a captain, I'm a sergeant. Here you go. Aren't you a shadow clone though? I didn't think clones ate. And have you tried the forest yet?"

"Yeah, that's where the boss is searching right now," the clone replied, pocketing the bars. "And actually we found out by accident that shadow clones actually _can_ eat, but we don't really need to. Unless the Boss is hungry when he summons us, which is why I need to get these snack bars to them as soon as I can. Thanks!"

The clone then ran off back to the forest, where dozens of clones were all searching for clues on where to pick up their sensei's trail. The clients and their guards watched him go and resumed their own meals.

"That was a good point about false trails though, Roku-sama," Sgt. Ryo commented. "Think they'll figure it out?"

"Not in a million years," Duo Maxwell, a private in Sgt. Heero's squad, immediately called out.

"I'm down for that. No way can a bunch of green genin best an experienced jounin in anything, from tracking to fighting. They'll never find those lunches," Kento Rei Fang, in Sgt. Ryo's squad, added.

"I don't know," Date Sage, also in Sgt. Ryo's squad, said, "This may be their first C-Rank mission, but they don't look like ones to give up easily. I think they could do it. Eventually."

"We're not talking eventually though," Trowa Barton, in Sgt. Heero's squard, remarked. "We're talking about right now. I too think they'll be able to find it, and retrieve them in time to join us for the remainder of our own lunch."

"Willing to put your money where your mouth is?" Toshidata Koma, one of the two extra sergeants Heero had suggested they bring along, challenged. Privately, behind his back, he was known as _Anubis_ amongst the soldiers ranks. To find out why, one only had to see how he handled himself on the battlefield.

"What's the bet?" Hashiba Rowen, from Sgt. Ryo's squad, answered the challenge.

"Oh, let's keep this friendly and manageable," Roku broke in on the conversation, then pulled out a small bag from his belt. "How about those that choose the losing side must set up and clean up the camp for the rest of this mission. The winners get to hunt when setting up camp and ride on the cart in shifts."

"I'm in," Duo announced, grinning from ear to ear.

"Me too!" Kento agreed.

"This is pointless," Chang Wufei, in Sgt. Heero's squad, scoffed. "I refuse to participate in childishness."

"I believe they can do it too," Quatre Winner, the last of Sgt. Heero's squad, said. "I'm in."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up in the last five minutes, but I do believe they can do it," Trowa stated his side.

"How about it Rowen? Cye?" Sage asked, "Think they'll do it?"

"Why not? I woulda been stuck hunting either way, all of you guys are lousy shots," Rowen agreed. They had all noticed the gold-plated bow he carried amongst his weapons, but only his fellow soldiers knew just how good he was with it.

"I fancy them succeeding, but I don't know if I'd be willing to bet clean-up duty on it," Mouri Cye, the last from Sgt. Ryo's squad, commented. "I'm with Wufei, keep me out of this."

"All right, what about you, Roku-sama?" Quatre asked.

"Oh, I most definitely believe Naruto and his friends will succeed, so I'll also participate," the Fire Sage confirmed. Some of the guards frowned, wondering if they should stop this here and now, if only to stop the risk of the most powerful man in the Fire Nation from doing manual labor.

Azula, seeing her grandfather's unwavering loyalty in ninja he'd only just met, scoffed at the idea and immediately proceeded to act without thought. "Very well then! I don't see what's so special about them, I don't think they'll ever manage to retrieve those lunches in time!"

That pretty much stopped all thoughts of backing out, as those that agreed with her wouldn't mind having the Princess sitting down the rest of the journey, if only to keep her quiet, while those that disagreed couldn't wait to see her help in cleaning up the camp come morning.

"Ryo, Heero, are you guys in on this?" a long-haired blond youth asked from the other side of the resting spot. He was the fourth and final sergeant brought along, and the second Heero had suggested, Zechs Merquise, also known as the _Lightning Count_. Mostly to do with the fact that he really was a Count, or rather the heir to one, and he was like lightning with a sword in his hand.

"What do you think?" Heero asked Ryo in his usual monotone voice.

"Wouldn't mind riding on the cart myself some," the sergeant grinned. "They'll definitely be back. With their lunches. How about you, Zechs?"

"I'm with Heero," the white-blond soldier retorted, eating his own food.

"We're with Wufei and Cye," Heero calmly informed his counterpart.

"Awww!" those that had already agreed to the bet complained that they wouldn't be getting all of the sergeants down in the dirt, one way or another.

"Oh, that's quite all right, no harm, no foul after all," Roku chuckled in rye amusement. "Ah, there you are Hayato. I was beginning to wonder where you'd run off to after giving your genin their little test. Care to join us for lunch?"

"Thank you, no," Hayato declined, going over to the gear and double-checking everything, before going to the cart and doing the same thing there as well.

"By the way," Azula asked the ninja, "how is Naruto and his playmates doing?"

"They found the first trail I left within five minutes," he calmly informed them.

"Oh, they may be back sooner than we thought they would," Sgt. Ryo called out.

"They would have found all of it, if I hadn't moved most of the food to a different hiding spot with an even harder to find trail," Hayato chuckled darkly, going over to check the horses.

The soldiers stopped talking suddenly, most of them staring at the jounin in disbelief.

"Nobody said anything about cheating," Quatre complained.

"It happens," Hayato commented, mostly ignoring the situation.

"Hm, yes, I suppose that it does," Roku remarked. "How difficult did you make the trail?"

"Chuunin level," he replied immediately.

"And the hiding spot where you put the food?"

Now the jounin was employing his trademark sadistic grin as he answered, "C-Rank."

"Oh dear," Roku sighed.

"What?" those that had bet on the genin wanted to know.

"Well, let's just say that I still have faith that they'll be back in time, I'm just not so sure all of the food will be in one piece when they do," the Fire Sage explained to them.

"... And the bet was just on whether they'd be back, right?" Trowa clarified. Roku nodded his head.

Suddenly there was an explosion off in the distance, and a flock of birds took off from the middle of the forest, making an absolute racket. The guards all shifted nervously, looking back and forth between Roku and Hayato, unsure.

"Oh good," Hayato still had on his sadistic grin, "They found the hiding spot."

The guards, even the Sergeants, all gulped and were quiet the rest of the meal, silently thanking Kami and everything else that this man was on their side.

Half an hour later, a roughed up, soot-covered Team One walked into the campsite, all three of them carrying their backpacks and wide, satisfied grins. Hayato stared at them, while in the background those that had bet against them were loudly complaining. Then he said to his genin, "You set off the trap."

"Which trap?" all three of them said together.

Hayato continued to stare, then answered, "The booby trap I placed around the second hiding spot."

"Oh, that was set off by a squirrel," Naruto shrugged.

"We barely managed to rescue it in time too," Kasumi scolded the jounin.

"We actually found the first spot right after you moved the food," Ryu told him. "Wasn't hard to track you when you moved it all like that. Hardest part was staying unseen..."

"Until I remembered the point was to find the food, not hide the fact that we were looking for it in the first place," Kasumi added.

"It was easy to get past your trap perimeter too," Ryu continued, "Especially since we were already at the base of the tree when you set it up, and all it took was a couple of Naruto's clones throwing us up above the tree line to get around it."

"It was all the other traps that we had to deal with on our way _out_ that was the real problem!" Naruto exclaimed. "How many exploding tags did you set up anyway?!"

Hayato blinked, then frowned. "Just the one. Anything else was a false trail or basic kunai and shuriken traps and a single pitfall."

"Told you that wasn't a bear trap," Ryu muttered.

"We only heard one explosion," Sgt. Heero commented.

"My clones found the rest and they all triggered at the same time!" Naruto explained. "Spread out in a... oh what was that pattern called again? Oh, right, a wide-spread limitation field."

"We're leaving! Break is over!" Hayato snapped, surging to his feet, the soldiers one step behind him.

"Huh? What? But we just got back!" Naruto complained.

"You didn't tell us it was in a field pattern!" Kasumi said to Naruto. "That means there are other ninja out here! Probably after us now that we ruined whatever trap or perimeter we set off. We need to put distance between us and that location as soon as possible!"

"Oh..." Naruto acknowledged and hurried with getting things ready.

"Naruto," Hayato pulled him back as everyone got back on the road.

"Yes Sensei?"

"Do you remember those pranks that you used to pull when in the village?"

Naruto gave the man a look that seemed to say 'Are you serious?! Do you know who you're talking to?!'

"Did you ever prank the Hyuuga in their Clan Compound?"

The blond boy's mischievous grin said it all.

"Were you ever caught?"

"Only the first time," Naruto admitted, still grinning. "I learned how to be quiet and how to sneak around after that and the only person that ever caught me after that was Iruka-sensei."

"I need you to go back to the woods and treat every inch of them like the Hyuuga Compound," Hayato quietly told him. "Only you're not going to prank anybody, you're going to spy on them. Specifically I want you and your clones to find out who is behind us and what they're doing here. Do _not_ let them know you're watching them, and do _not_ let them follow you back to us. We're going to go on ahead, but we can't afford to wait, so you'll have to catch up to us after you've found out who set those other tags, all right?"

"Hai Sensei!" Naruto nodded.

"Leave three shadow clones with the group, one to stay with Kasumi and Ryu, the other two stay by me," he ordered. "Next time we stop for a break, which will probably be sooner rather than later, I'll have one of the clones dispel themselves so you'll know where to find us. Hurry."

"Hai!" and then he was gone, leaving behind three copies, smoke slowly drifting around them.

"..." Hayato stared at the empty spot, then glanced over to the horizon and saw Naruto's blurry form already a good distance away. "I probably should have waited a little while longer before teaching him the _Shunshin no jutsu_... *sigh* Oh well."

_Back in the Forest_

Naruto landed silently on the giant tree's branch, then huddled himself up against the trunk, opening his senses wide to see if he'd been detected. He did know a thing or two about stealth, though in general when going into a fight he much preferred to do it openly and without holding anything back, but at the same time he understood from Hayato-sensei's orders that this was _not_ the time for a fight, and that meant stealth. So far, so good it would seem.

After a few more seconds of watching, Naruto almost ran out to another hiding spot to go deeper into the forest when he felt something on the edge of his chakra sense that Ryu's technique had helped him hone. He stilled himself instantly and waited, closing his eyes and paying attention to what his new sense was telling him.

It was hard at first, he still couldn't quite do it as naturally as the others could, but pretty soon he'd filtered out enough of the 'noise' to identify what was what. Thirteen foreign, human, chakra signatures, spread out in a pattern Naruto recognized from his tactics training. It was a spread search pattern, and all of them were moving in and out from the trees, down on the ground and up in the branches, at a speed that no civilian should be capable of. Also, they're signatures were _brighter_ than everything else around them, and even brighter than the soldiers that came with Azula.

_Ninja_.

Silently, like he used to when he knew he was about to be caught, or whenever he snuck out of the Hyuuga Compound so they wouldn't use those eyes of theirs, Naruto crept out from his hiding spot and quickly moved out of the forest boundaries. Just before leaving though, he remembered the rest of his mission and created a dozen shadow clones, and then another dozen each of earth clones, rock clones, water clones, and had those that could, transform into random civilians or merchants, turning them into a caravan going back the way they'd come from. The rock clones, which could not use ninjutsu, but could travel through the earth as _part of_ the earth with the underground move, he had following the fake caravan on all sides with orders to keep an eye out for the enemy ninja. And also for the rest of them to make as much noise as possible when going through the forest.

Once he was out of the trees and the clones were on their way, he flashed all the way back to where he'd left the group. Surprisingly, they were only a few dozen yards ahead of him.

"Hey! Hayato-sensei!" he called, and then flashed again, appearing right next to the jounin with a loud crack of displaced wind. "They were ninja that set up all those other traps!"

"Which village?" Hayato calmly asked, apparently not disturbed at all by his student's very loud entrance. The guards and horses were not as well-composed.

"Uh, I don't know yet," the blond sheepishly admitted.

"You don't know?" the jounin looked down at the genin. "That is what I sent you back into the forest to find out, is it not? I hope you at least left some clones to continue spying on these potentially enemy ninja, Naruto. Otherwise, I'll be disappointed in you."

"I did! Shadow clones, rock clones, earth clones and even water clones. I thought you said that they didn't work long range, but mine are still going on, and they're actually getting further away from me as we speak..."

Hayato stared. Shaking his head to clear it, he glared down at the genin and asked, "Did you at least identify how many we're dealing with?"

"Thirteen! That's how many moving and bigger chakra signatures were there anyway," he answered.

"Alright, that's something at least. Did you make sure they did not detect you or follow you back here?"

Naruto nodded his head. Hayato sighed in relief.

"Now you just need to go back and find someway of gaining the information you omitted in obtaining at the first opportunity. And this time, don't leave for five minutes and then come back saying you're done! Spying, especially spying as a ninja takes a lot more hard work than just stealth!"

"I know, that's why I..." Naruto trailed off, his eyes glazing over, as did the three shadow clones still with the group. "Uh-oh," one of them muttered. Naruto blinked.

"We've got to get out of here," he demanded, looking quite serious all of a sudden.

"Why? What is it?" Hayato inquired.

"They aren't ninja," was all Naruto would say.

"Move!" Hayato picked Azula up and put her on the cart next to her great grandfather. Then he slapped the horses rears to get them into a gallop and shouted the command to all of the soldiers once more, "MOVE!"

"Naurto..." Hayato turned to his student, intent on getting more details on what the clones Naruto had obviously left behind had found.

"They weren't wearing headbands, they all carried swords, or at least some kind of weapons, and the biggest one was talking about Kasumi-chan and Azula-hime. And..." Naruto's eyes suddenly bulged in shock.

"OK, that kinda hurt!" one of the clones complained, rubbing the back of his neck. They all blinked in unison once again. "That was the last of them."

"No, there's still one rock clone, I think he's following them," the real Naruto corrected. "Sensei, there are thirteen bandits behind us! They were heading northwest through the forest when my clones got their attention. One of them said something about having to come out to check the traps for nothing. They thought wild animals had set them off. From what he said, it sounds like it happens a lot. The big one I mentioned? He also said something about cutting off the rich old guy at the pass and..."

"Let me guess," Ryu said, coming up from behind them. They'd been running in parallel to the soldiers and wagon as Naruto gave his report. "The big guy said something about killing all of the guards, maybe taking our weapons and horses and wagon, and then taking Kasumi and Azula and basically kidnap them, right?"

Naruto's gaze darkened, and replied, "Close enough."

"Your clones attacked him and got themselves dispelled?" Hayato asked. Naruto nodded his head. "Then they now suspect ninja are involved. They probably don't _know_, but they can certainly guess. Still, good work Naruto. You still got the information we needed, even if in the end they know that we're here."

"Actually..." Naruto slowly showed his prankster's grin.

"What did you do?" Ryu asked knowingly.

"I made most of my clones transform into random civilians and merchants, but I couldn't do that to my rock clones, so I had one of my shadow clones change from my mission outfit to my standard outfit," Naruto told them.

"You mean that horrible orange jumpsuit?" Ryu asked, horrified.

"Yeah, then I told him to make as much noise as possible, which for me, is complaining that I would be stuck with the boring stuff. And he might have blurted out that he really hated being the distraction for the main group going south, just because he's a bunshin master. Heh heh heh," Naruto laughed out loud.

At the looks he received from both his teammates and his Jounin Sensei, he replied, "Hey! You told me to treat it like a prank! Best way to not get caught is to point the finger in the other direction! Still, they didn't go south, but went on through the forest to the north west. The big guy is scary strong too."

"Strong like powerful or strong like...?" Ryu asked.

"He threw one of my rock clones over a hundred feet _through_ several trees before it finally broke apart," Naruto answered.

"Strong like strong," Ryu nodded. "Good to know."

"So their target hasn't changed," Hayato said. "Good work Naruto. Let me know what that last clone following them finds out when you can. We have to hurry our pace, otherwise we're going to be cut off."

"I didn't know there were that many bandits in this area," Kasumi pointed out. "Especially not this close to Konoha. What are they doing out here?"

"Most likely it was just a small scouting party, sent to check on the traps like Naruto overheard," Hayato replied. "There have been reports of a bandit camp somewhere in the mountains up ahead, but the most we can do is whittle them down, capture or take out the truly dangerous ones, and protect major trading routes. Given how many bandits are suspected of being in these mountains alone, it would take a major task of at least thirty experienced jounin and twice that many chuunin to successfully capture or purge all bandit activity from just this area alone, with massive casualties on both sides of the battle. So don't bother asking why we don't just get rid of them."

"I could do it!" Naruto proclaimed. "I will do it, when I become Hokage!"

Ryu snorted. "Naruto, you could probably do it right now. Heck, make enough clones and you can outnumber them ten to one, easy."

"Something that I may ask you to do at some point, Naruto," Hayato said to him. Then he moved ahead to share his information with the sergeants and Fire Sage.

"Besides, there are many sides to every story," Kasumi said to her fellow genin. "People don't become bandits because they're evil or they like to hurt people. At least most don't. They become bandits because they have no choice, one way or the other. For right now though, we have a mission, and that's to protect Roku-sama and Azula-san. Let's focus on that for right now, all right Naruto?"

"... Right!" he exclaimed after a moment of thought. Many sides to every story? What does that mean?

"Let's keep moving!" Hayato called out, running to the lead of the group, hand signaling for the others to follow close behind the wagon and the soldiers to double time it. They began running along and the horses were spurred into a half gallop, kicking up a dust cloud as they hurried along.

_Highway to Mountain Pass_

_Konoha/Fire Nation Outpost_

_Evening_

"I didn't actually expect us to get here after only one day's travel," Roku commented, sounding impressed. "But then I didn't expect us to spend half the day running from shadows and phantoms either."

"I trust Naruto, and he heard and reported that he saw shinobi-level bandits checking on traps that I did not set or detect when setting my own," Hayato replied in a low voice. "That they're in the area is worthy of caution. That they noticed you and are targeting you raises it to alarming. Would you disagree, Sage Roku-sama?"

"Hm, perhaps," Roku shrugged and took a drink. They were sitting alone at a table in the tavern that was part of the outpost. There were numerous such outposts, occupied by both the soldiers of the Fire Lord and Konoha ninja equally, though command was often split between the highest rank ninja over chuunin and the highest rank soldier over captain. The group had managed to reach the outpost just as the sun was setting and they were starting to close the gates for the evening. Thankfully, they easily let Roku in once they saw his and Azula's identity papers, along with the I.D.s for Hayato, Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu.

The outpost itself was more a soldier's fort than anything else. There were wooden log walls along all the edges, except the back edge, which was against the mountain itself, with a sheer cliff with only goat trails to climb it or to get above the outpost at all. Inside the walls were ten main buildings and few utility sheds spread out. The Command building, a two story office where the command staff did paperwork. The Armory, the Stables, the Barracks actually made up four of the buildings, the Tavern for recreation and relaxation, the Mess Hall for meals, and the Brig, which was a small stone structure built into one of the corners against the mountain. Currently it was empty and there were no signs of it having been used recently at all.

Roku took another sip of his liquor, savoring the taste as it burned his throat. "Still, paranoia is never a good trait to encourage in everyday life. Even for ninja. I am grateful to be provided with lodging rather than a tent for the evening I must admit. I may not mind it as much, but these old bones of mine do tend to complain when they don't get to sleep in a warm bed. Do you expect we'll have to keep up the hard pace for the remainder of the journey, or do you believe a more... sedate and cautious pace might be in order?"

Hayato considered, swirling his own drink around in the cup. "I'm beginning to wish that we'd taken all those extra soldiers, added attention or no."

"This is a _C-_Rank mission, Hayato-san," Roku reminded him. "Drawing that kind of attention would turn it into an A-Rank mid-mission before we'd even gotten to the pass. I'm sure we'll be fine. And shinobi-level or not, bandits don't really stand up to true ninja and trained soldiers, now do they?"

"Even I can be outnumbered," the jounin reminded him.

"But Naruto apparently, cannot be," Roku joked, taking another drink.

"He's still learning," Hayato said, his eyes lowered in thought.

"Yes, and you're teaching all of them very well. Considering that they found not only what you'd taken from them, and your traps, they discovered another's traps and alerted us to potential danger. Yes, I'd say you've done very well with all of them. I think with how quickly we got here we can afford to stay an extra day, if you'd prefer that is. Give us more time to rest, maybe contract additional soldiers..."

"No," Hayato interrupted, his eyes snapping up to look at the Fire Sage. "We leave at first light. Sooner we get through the pass the better. Longer we wait, the more time we give those bandits to prepare for us passing through. We just need to be ready for anything. ...I do wish your granddaughter had not come along."

"Yes, sadly I'm beginning to regret that too," Roku looked down at his cup, frowning. "Of course I've always hated putting others in danger. Azula-chan is unfortunately going to have to learn the hard way, the real world is a harsh place and there will be times in life when the unknown attacks without warning, or mercy."

"I'm going to speak with the Commander," Hayato stood up, "See about getting additional supplies, maybe some bribe money. If you have any jewels you're not too fond of, be sure to have them ready by morning so we'll have them ready. Just in case."

"Of course," Roku sighed, finishing the last of his meal and his drink. "I think I'll go spend some time with the men. And I think I'll take this bottle with me. And this one too." The old man giggled as he grabbed a couple bottles of alcohol and went outside to the campfires where most of the soldiers of the fort not on watch gathered for the usual revelry.

Hayato sighed and walked over to the corner table where the genin and Azula all sat.

"Hey, Hayato-sensei!" Naruto greeted the jounin as he stood beside the table.

"Good evening, Sensei," Kasumi nodded to him.

"What's up?" Ryu asked.

"How are you all doing?" he asked after acknowledging their greetings and giving his own in return.

Most of them shrugged, Azula was rather quiet, but the ninja were just fine and said as much.

"Good," he nodded. "Be sure to get your rest this evening. We're heading out at first light. And given what was discovered earlier today, we'll hold off on any more training exercises. So be sure to keep alert tomorrow. Azula-san, you might want to turn in early. I understand that you'll be walking tomorrow, something having to do with a lost bet?"

The black-haired princess turned red with anger, then let it go with a rush of air. "Fine. Do you know where my grandfather is?"

"You'll find him in the courtyard, consorting with the soldiers, so to speak," Hayato told her, then walked off, supposedly to find the Commander of the Fort.

"Why do you want to speak to your grandfather so much?" Naruto questioned. "Not that there's anything wrong with talking to Roku-jiisan, he's cool. You just seem kinda clingy ever since this mission started."

The noble blushed a bright red in embarrassment, keeping her eyes on the table and not looking up. She didn't say anything for the longest time, and Naruto thought she was either ignoring him or hadn't heard, but a look from Kasumi told him it would be wiser to wait for her to speak next.

"I don't get to see my grandfather very much," was the short and simple reply.

Naruto blinked, waiting for her to say more, but instead she just took another sip of her tea. He sweat-dropped and argued, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Why not just go up to him and ask him to spend time with you? And that doesn't explain why you're so clingy, you—mmhmghmmphmmh!" Kasumi had quickly put her hand over Naruto's mouth to keep him from saying anything more.

"Let's go for a walk, Azula-san," Kasumi offered with a kind smile. "You know, girl-talk."

At that, Naruto immediately stopped struggling and quieted down, while Ryu tried to pretend he was anywhere but at the table at that moment. The two girls left, and once gone both of the boys breathed a sigh of relief. They spent another few minutes finishing up their meal, then went outside to hang with the guards for all of fifteen minutes before turning in for the night. They knew by now to get their rest when Hayato told them how early they would be leaving in the morning.

Azula and Kasumi however, strolled along the wall of the fort, quietly walking along and greeting other evening walkers or guards on duty that they passed. After their first circuit, they'd finally found a quiet secluded space and Azula stopped. Kasumi paused, then walked back and simply stood next to her.

The noble just stood there, her face turned down. Finally, the chestnut haired kunoichi heard a whisper.

"He's one of the only ones that really care about me. For _me_."

Kasumi nodded. "I have an older brother. He's amazing. Everyone knows his name too."

Azula sniffed and replied, "Tenshin Hayate, Champion of Tournaments."

"And everyone in our clan and village just knows me as his little sister," Kasumi continued as though the other girl hadn't spoken. "The clan expects equally great things from me. The village expects me to become even more popular and treat me like I'm a princess. Some of the clan do as well. So please don't laugh when I say that I understand what you're feeling. If it weren't for Naruto..."

"Hah!" Azula let out a cruel laugh. "That idiot? What good is he?"

"He's the reason that I'm a ninja today," Kasumi coldly replied, startling the noble.

"He has a way," she said, "There's just something about him that lets him see right into the heart of everyone he meets and if you're around him long enough, you begin to see what he sees too. Eventually. There are the liars and politicians and spies in the world that might be able to fool him, but... But that wouldn't stop him from believing. Believing in his dream, and that everyone alive has their own dream and the right to do everything in their power to attain it, no matter what."

"I went to the Ninja Academy with him for several years, but I never really got to know him, didn't care to. Then we get assigned to the same team, and an hour after 'meeting him' I find myself fighting a jounin and willing to do just about anything to defeat him. All thanks to a few spoken words from the dumb blond that everybody laughed at in class."

Kasumi stared up at the moon for a minute, letting Azula just stare at the ground, thinking about what she said. "Your great grandfather must be a lot like him," she said finally, still staring at the moon. "They both immediately liked each other, and Naruto was only as mean to you as you were to him, then when you apologized, he treated you the same way your grandfather treats you."

"So I should just be grateful to know the Kage-wannabe brat instead of getting to spend time with my own flesh and blood? Is that it?!" Azula cried.

"Adults are often very busy," Kasumi observed. "I never really got to know my parents that well. Except for my mother and brother, and nii-san was always running off fighting in tournaments when I was growing up. Then my father was killed and my mother got sick and died. I never really cried at my father's funeral. I did for my mother though."

"Your grandfather loves you," Kasumi said to the lonely girl. "Cherish the time you have left with him, but don't try to monopolize him. He cares for you just as much as you do for him, and he _will_ find the time and the means to show that to you. Just be there and let him when he does."

"I suppose you're comparing me wanting to spend time with my grandfather to you spending time with your brother?" Azula accused, but Kasumi simply nodded her head.

"Yes, and every time he came home from a tournament, before even reporting to the Hokage, he would come and say hi, give me a gift, then come back later and teach me how to be a ninja. Though I was a little girl at the time, so it might be better to call it what it was. He played with me, and I loved him for it. I'm sure Roku-sama does something very similar every time he sees you, yes?"

Azula glanced up at the moon, tears coming from her eyes. "He tells me stories. He... he treats me like I'm his equal and anything I say he takes as serious as if it were coming from the Fire Lord himself."

"Well, he's sitting out with the guards right now," Kasumi pointed over to the fire pit where there was a lot of commotion as the man in the middle, none other than Roku himself, told a dirty joke that had the lot of them laughing their asses off.

"He's with the soldiers though," Azula snootily remarked.

Kasumi shrugged. "Like I said, Roku-sama and Naruto-kun seem to have a lot in common. They don't see people's _stations_ and _ranks_. They see the people themselves and judge them as such. Nothing more, nothing less. You might want to try it out for yourself some time."

Kasumi gave the noble one last grin, waved, and then turned to walk off. "Good night, Princess."

Azula scowled, then sighed and crossed her arms, glaring up at the moon now, as though it were to blame for all of her problems. A few minutes later, she had nothing left to stew over and let out a heavy sigh, before cautiously approaching the gathering in hopes of just basking in her grandfather's presence, even if it was shared with guards. Roku, on the other hand, had different plans.

"Ahh! Azula-chan!" Roku called out drunkenly. "Boys! This is my favorite ne- no, that's not it. Ah! Granddaughter. Yep! She's my granddaughter. She's got a beeeeUtiful mother. Married though."

"Awwww!" the men cried in disappointment.

"To some guy, don't really remember his name right now. Anyway, Azula here is a nice girl. Now I don't want any of you louts thinking you got a chance with her, ya hear me? And here's why; she's too damn good for the lot of ya!" The men all roared in laughter as though it were some joke.

Azula blushed, thoroughly embarrassed and tried getting away, but Roku just held her by the shoulders, not letting her get away.

"No, no, no, nononononono!" Roku called to quiet down the mob. "I'm serious! She's a nice girl. Bit of a temper, but she is _my_ granddaughter." More laughter. "She's also a pretty good fighter. Could probably take one of you lot, if you weren't drunk! Can sing too! Oh, and let me tell you, this girl can cook! Get's that from her mother, and I don't know where she got it from. Probably one of my wives..."

"Grandfather, you've only ever had one wife," Azula calmly reminded him, though there was an edge of steel to her voice as she spoke.

Roku blinked.

"Really? Cause I coulda sworn that my wife can't cook," he muttered, only to be met with another round of roaring laughter. Azula snickered. It was true, her great grandmother really couldn't cook.

"Heh, so the little girl has a sense of humor after all," one of the guards remarked, pointing at Azula's snicker. The girl looked affronted for a moment, but Roku came to her rescue. Sort of.

"Oh, she does, she really does. She tells the best jokes! Another thing she gets from me!" Roku admitted. Then he gave the girl a gentle shove. "Go on Azula, entertain us with a joke or two."

Azula blinked, wide-eyed. She liked being the center of attention most of the time, but suddenly being put in the spotlight like this had thrown her off more than a bit. "Uh..."

Azula had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

_Highway To Mountain Pass_

_Next Morning_

Naruto yawned.

They had all woken up before the sun had risen and gotten things ready and packed so that they were out of the fort and on the road to the mountains by the time the sky began to brighten. Azula and Roku were allowed to sleep later, the first because she was a noble and still had a bedtime, and the second because he'd spent the entire night drinking and needed to sleep it off. In fact, the guards even carried the both of them, unconscious, to the cart and placed them so they could continue sleeping as they left the fort. They finally woke up about an hour after dawn.

That didn't mean Team One wasn't still tired themselves. Despite having somewhat gotten used to the early hours, thanks to Hayato's hellish training, they had still stayed up for part of the night and six hours sleep is not very much to go on. Nevertheless, they made sure they were alert and awake despite the early hour. The guards had even donned their armor and had their weapons on full display.

Just as they were entering the pass, Hayato signaled for the group to stop. Right around the same time, Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi all felt something via their chakra senses, but couldn't identify what it was until it was almost too late. Right as Hayato was signaling to the guards that it was an ambush, the trap was sprung as about thirty men jumped out from the rocks all around them.

They were a ragtag crew, obviously bandits, no strict uniform beyond the fact that they carried weapons and kept glancing to one guy in particular, the one that had jumped out right in front of them and put himself between them and the pass. He stood about 7 feet tall, was bald and had very muscular arms, but what made him really big was the beer belly he sported like it was a set of six-pack-abs. He moved easily and carried a large iron club casually in one hand, resting it on his shoulder. The thing, from tip to hilt, was actually taller than Naruto, and was spiked on the business end, making it more like a really big mace.

(Play "First Encounter")

"Well greetings!" the giant said cheerfully, as though they'd just been passing by and were in a good mood. That changed as all the bandits turned their greedy leers towards the cart and both Azula and Kasumi. "What brings you fair travelers all the way out here?" the leader queried sarcastically.

The ninja and guards all tensed, quickly realizing the situation. There was a moment of heavy silence that was only broken by Hayato stepping forward and adopting his usual cross-armed pose. "I would think that would be obvious," he said in a very condescending tone, "We're traveling through the pass to reach the Capitol. That is fairly common for these parts, one would assume."

"Indeed! Indeed you are?" the big man laughed. "Going to the Capitol, eh? And what would an old man and a young pretty thing like the well-dressed peasant there, be doing having guards _and_ ninja protecting them, eh? I think at least one of them might be worth a handsome ransom. Normally, we might have only asked you to pay the toll and sent you on your way. But we're rather bored, you see. And a good tussle with you ninja and men who are so obviously royal guards is just what the men ordered!"

"Do we really have to do this?" Hayato asked with a sigh. "I _am_ a jounin you understand. And royal or no, these guards here are hardly amateurs at what they do. We all know this sort of game. How much to pass?"

"Heh, normally, you'd be right, but you gave us a nasty little chase yesterday, which kept us from playing the usual game in the forest. We might even have let you go unharassed if you'd just waited for us. Now, heh, well now you pissed me off."

"I would suggest keeping that temper under control then," he replied. "You never know who you may piss off in return. Besides, you're outnumbered."

"OUTNUMBERED?!! HAH! HAH HAH HAH!" the big man laughed. "I am Tokumetsu of the Mountain Bandits, _Jounin-san_! We number in the _hundreds_! And I see less than half of our own numbers before me. Maybe even less, taking out the ones that are clearly genin. Worth less than nothing."

"Grrr!" Naruto growled, grinding his teeth and barely managing to hold himself back.

"Naruto," Hayato's words broke through the blond's anger. "Show Tokumetsu-san here how outnumbered he is. Please."

Naruto blinked. Since when did Hayato-sensei say '_Please_'?! Then he took only a moment to think about it and smiled evilly at the bandits. Taking a breath and gathering the chakra needed, Naruto decided to really impress his sensei, starting with his favorite.

"_Taju Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!" he called out, forming the familiar cross-seal, right before flashing through the five and then three and then seven hand seals for the follow-up jutsu, calling them out successively. "_Iwa Bunshin no jutsu_! _Mizu Bunshin no jutsu_! _Tsuchi Bunshin no jutsu_!"

All around them, and around the 30 or so bandits, starting with explosions of white smoke that filled the area like mist, and then from the rocks of the mountainside, the river running alongside the pass, and finally from the ground beneath them came over two hundred extra Naruto's, each with grim expressions and already handling shuriken and kunai as weapons. The bandits all looked around and gulped, gathering together into a single group in front of the travelers. Even Tokumetsu looked a bit nervous at the sudden change in numbers.

At 50 clones per jutsu, Naruto was feeling pretty proud of himself, and only slightly winded. Like doing a few hours of chakra control exercises or something like that. He had certainly felt the strain of using four different bunshin jutsu one right after the other, particularly when two of them were actually high-level jutsu while the others were nothing to sneeze at. But he had trained to do just this sort of thing while in the heat of battle and do even more, so he could handle it. Still, he was glad that for the moment they all just had to stand there and intimidate the bastards.

"As I said," Hayato coldly remarked, not even looking around at all of Naruto's clones, "you're the ones outnumbered, and just as outmatched."

"Heh, so we are," Tokumetsu grumbled, looking around at what was arrayed against him and his men.

"Uh, Boss?" the one closest to Tokumetsu asked for orders.

"Don't go thinking that our friend here is the _only_ one that has impressive jutsu on his side!" Ryu confidently called out, adopting a fighting pose of his own.

"Heh!" Naruto chuckled, feeling very proud of himself by now.

"You got us, there's no way we can fight so many, particularly not ninja," Tokumetsu said in a mock-mournful voice. Hayato frowned, growing concerned. "Oh wait, there's this," the big man grinned wickedly and tossed his club up in the air. Most everyone was watching the club, to see where or what he had tossed it at, everyone except Hayato of course, who kept his eyes on the bandit the entire time.

Unfortunately, that proved to be more difficult than even the jounin would have first suspected.

The spiked club flipped through the air, end over end until it reached the height of the rock walls on either side and suddenly straightened itself before spinning like a top on a string. The travelers stared in mounting shock at the strange phenomenon, unsure of what was happening. The bandits, however, all vanished away the moment the club began to spin. Hayato, who'd been keeping a very close eye on them, didn't even blink, instead interpreting their actions with what was happening.

"DOWN!" he screamed, grabbing his team and pulling them back to the wagon before pulling Roku and Azula off of it. "NOW! GET DOWN!"

The soldiers didn't hesitate in following the orders, and just in time too as the still spinning club began to shoot out mini-rockets that slammed into spots all over the rocky walls of the pass. All of Naruto's clones scrambled for their own cover, but unfortunately over half of them were vanquished in the first salvo and all of the easily dispelled clones, the water and shadow clones, fell soon after as the rockets continued for another ten seconds. That was not the worst of it though, as at least six rockets were fired to specific points along the pass. Where they hit, there was a cluster of exploding notes waiting and were quickly set off with more than four times as much force as the rockets had.

"AAAHHHHH!" Azula was screaming out loud. Roku pulled her close to protect and comfort her.

Two hit on either side of the rock walls behind the group, another two about ten meters behind where the bandits had been standing, also high up on the walls, and the last two on either side directly over the place where the group had stopped the wagon and were currently huddled down for protection. After the exploding notes were set off, rock slides started at each blast point. Hayato saw this and did some quick thinking.

"NARUTO! Have the rest of the clones get above us and behind us! Then go BOOM!" he shouted in the genin's ear. The blond neither flinched nor hesitated in creating a single shadow clone so fast it didn't even have time to create white smoke before dispelling itself and sending its message to all of Naruto's remaining clones at once.

Instantly, all of the remaining Naruto clones split into two groups; rock clones and earth clones. The Iwa Bunshin raced for the rear of the pass, racing to get under or at least near the rock slides as quickly as they could, while the Tsuchi Bunshin put themselves between the falling debris and their teammates. Moments later, each clone formed a single hand sign and then blew themselves into their respective pieces of dirt. Thankfully, there was enough force from the earth clones blowing themselves to kingdom come that the larger rocks were blown into marble sized pebbles and most of that was thrown back up into the air to then fall back down as harmless clods of dirt and rock. The rock clones had similar luck in keeping the pass open at least, though the front of the pass was now completely blocked off by a virtual wall of rock and dirt and heavy stones.

"Nice job," Hayato patted the boy's head after the dirt had stopped raining down on them.

Slowly, they all got back to their feet. There was an uneasy quiet in the wake of the explosions, and the rocket club had disappeared along with the bandits after it was all over. The guards all quickly readied their weapons while the ninja extended their senses, trying to feel for foreign chakra signatures, or signs of more traps laying in wait. The nobles, however, were still dusting themselves off.

Roku made it seem like the whole incident was no more inconvenient than having it start to rain and treated the entire thing like it was a matter of course. Azula, on the other hand, was starting to freak out.

"What, what-what's happening? What is going on?" she asked again and again, sounding close to tears.

"Azula-chan, everything is fine, it will be all right," Roku held his great granddaughter, comforting her. "There's nothing to worry about now. Don't worry. Hayato?"

"Yes sir," the jounin nodded and gestured to the soldiers, who immediately spread out in a close-knit protection detail with the wagon at their center. To his genin, he gave a series of hand signals, to which they paid close attention before he finally nodded to them. They nodded back and quickly split off from the rest, racing forward to the front of the pass where they were blocked off.

"How long?" Kasumi asked the boys, glancing over the rock debris with a critical eye.

"Uh... too long," Naruto was forced to admit, knowing what she was asking.

"Sooner we get started," Ryu sighed and started forming hand seals. "_Iwa Bunshin no jutsu_!"

Out of the very barrier blocking their progress, roughly half a dozen stone figures popped up and quickly shaped themselves into clones of Ryu and then turned their attention to clearing away the rest of the stones and dirt. Naruto and Kasumi made the same hand seals and formed another half dozen rock clones each, because that was all the room left for them. Any more and the clones would be getting in each others way.

"We need to get this cleared as quickly as possible," Kasumi said out loud.

"We're moving as quick as we can!" Naruto loudly complained.

"Might help if you got your own hands dirty, _princess_!" Ryu shouted.

"Keep your voice down," Kasumi told him. "The bandits might not have left, and we don't want them coming back before..."

"Before you manage to escape, is that it?" a loud, obnoxious voice said from above them.

The genin all looked up, except for the rock clones, they kept working. Standing on either side of the rock walls were at least twice as many bandits as there had been before, and the big one with the club, Tokumetsu, was standing just above where the genin and clones were working, his club resting casually on his right shoulder (apparently he either had another or had somehow retrieved the first one).

"Oh crud," Ryu cursed.

"Smash'em!" Tokumetsu ordered, pointing his club at them. The bandits all surged forward, swinging mallets, swords, maces, and just about every melee weapon that one could imagine.

Behind them, Azula screamed in fright upon seeing so many bandits, all carrying weapons and looking like they knew how to use them too. Roku stood firm, continuing to hold Azula, but he did give a look to Hayato, who acknowledged it with only a glance.

"NOW!" Kasumi screamed as she, Ryu and Naruto leapt back from their assailants. Moments later their eighteen rock clones threw themselves at the bandits and then each exploded with maximum shrapnel-effective damage.

A lot of the bandits screamed in pain and backed up, others fell and did not get back up and very few actually stood up and kept walking towards the travelers. One of those few was Tokumetsu and it looked like he hadn't even _felt_ the explosions, even though he'd only been several meters away!

"HAH! Is that the best you got?" he mocked them.

"Oh, this guy is so going down!" Naruto growled, but Kasumi and Ryu both held him back.

"Hold it, we kind of need a plan," Ryu said urgently. "After all, he _did_ just survive several explosions from close range and he isn't even scratched. We can't just rush in and start hitting without knowing how to hit him in the first place."

"Uh... right," Naruto grudgingly admitted as they continued back towards their sensei and the guards.

"First thing we have to deal with is everybody else," Kasumi hissed, annoyed. "Hayato-sensei wanted us to draw them out, but I doubt he was planning on there being _this_ many!"

"Actually, I was," Hayato said from just behind him.

They were already too high-strung from the situation to bother screaming this time, but they did tense up and glare at him. "I'll take care of fatso," he told them, "Kasumi, Ryu, you help the guards protect this location. We need a place to make a stand and this is as good as its gonna get for the next few minutes. Naruto."

"Hai sensei!" Naruto was immediately by the man's side, expecting to be told to remain there and to use his clones to help out some more.

"I want you to stick by Roku and Azula's side, _no matter what_. Do you understand?" Hayato ordered.

Naruto blinked, a bit disappointed that he wasn't being used on the front line like he'd thought, but one glance at the kind old man and his cowering granddaughter was all he needed to do before looking his Jounin Sensei in the eye and simply nodded his head once. In the next second he was by the nobles and in position to protect them from anything coming their way.

"Good man," Hayato whispered under his breath and turned his attention to Tokumetsu as his genin went to their assigned positions.

"Ah, so they're sending out the heavy hitter already!" the giant mocked once more.

"Actually, we're just getting warmed up," the man coldly replied and readied himself. "I apologize for how short this is going to last, but my students need to be shown how this sort of thing is done. Pardon me if I seem a bit distracted while we're fighting, I just want to see how much progress they've made, so I'll be checking on them every once in a while here."

"WHAT?!!" the giant bandit screamed, going red in the face, steam practically coming out his ears.

"I'll get you!" he screamed and charged Hayato, too angry to come up with a witty reply to the jounin's insult. A large number of the bandits just behind Tokumetsu fell in the wake of his charge as they were caught up in the moment, planning on tackling the jounin, or swinging out to the side to overwhelm the defenders.

The guards with bows, crossbows, or other ranged weapons stepped forward and began to single out those they could take out in one shot each, working more to whittle down their opposition rather than stop their charge directly. Of course they aimed around the charging tank that was Tokumetsu, leaving him for Hayato.

"I will give you one last chance to back down," Hayato declared to Tokumetsu. "As a mere bandit, you stand no chance against a ninja."

Tokumetsu merely laughed. "Hah hah hah! Ninja aren't so tough! Come! Let Tokumetsu show you a bandit's chances against a ninja!"

The next moment, Hayato was standing right in front of him, his fist halfway into the giant's torso. The big man growled in pain, sinking to his knees. "You're strong," Hayato said. "However, physical strength is meaningless when you are unable to hit your opponent."

Tokumetsu lumbered to his feet and took a swing at Hayato, who simply poofed and fell away into white smoke. The most basic of ninjutsu techniques, Hayato had used _kawarimi no jutsu_ to replace himself with a body of air that came from a few meters away. "As I said, attack power is meaningless without speed. Surrender."

Tokumetsu gave a grumbling chuckle, and said, "You ninja are rather full of yourself, which makes you easy to fool." The next moment Tokumetsu had crossed the distance between him and the ninja, and simply slammed into him with a shoulder rush. The wind was knocked out of Hayato in an instant, not to mention he was launched off of his feet and slammed into a nearby tree.

"Hayato-sensei," Kasumi hissed in shock as she saw what had happened to her teacher. She quickly refocused, and threw a senbon needle to the back of the neck of one the bandits that was pressing a royal guard.

"Hayato-sensei!" Ryu cried out, then was forced to refocus his own attention on another of the bandits that had gotten past the fire line and quickly disabled the man of his weapons and footing.

"Hayato-sensei..." Naruto growled to himself, struggling to keep his position in guarding Roku and Azula. Ultimately it came down to the fact that he was still too winded from earlier jutsu use to do anything that made up his mind, and so he kept his position, protecting the clients from any harm coming their way.

Tokumetsu stood above a surprised Hayato who forced himself to stand up. "That... was surprising," Hayato acknowledged, checking himself for injuries.

Tokumetsu spoke surprisingly melodiously as he mocked Hayato, "Ah, jounin-san, do you know what chakra is made up off?"

Hayato decided that letting his body recover from the powerful hit was preferable to inciting more injuries by taunting the giant, so he answered, "Body energy and spirit energy."

"Correct, Jounin-san," Tokumetsu answer sweetly, "But did you know there are those with an innate ability to use body energy directly? That would be me. You could call it: a Kekkei Genkai."

The next moment Tokumetsu's fist slammed into Hayato's head, or so Tokumetsu thought. At the last moment Hayato managed to replace himself with a nearby boulder. To Hayato's shock from his new position he saw Tokumetsu slam his fist and stone into the rock wall behind it, which caused the boulder to be all but pulverized, while the wall had a large hole in it. This was going to be harder than he thought. He jumped from his cover, launching a lightning jutsu at the living tank, but the man dodged easily.

"_Raiton: Raikyū _(Lightning Release: Lightning Ball)!" A blue-yellow blast of lightning formed between his hands and was cast at the surprisingly nimble giant.

"Ah, jounin-san, so you're finally going to fight me for real, huh?" Tokumetsu mocked Hayato's attempts.

"..." Hayato thought about replying, but decided to give a different kind of answer, in the form of another _Raikyū_.

Not far away, Naruto was watching the battle unfold, itching to get into the fight, and feeling quite put out that he had been delegated to the rear guards. However, orders were orders, and he didn't want to disappoint either the Old Man or Hayato-sensei. And so, he was forced to stay here. He grinned suddenly - nothing was preventing him from being in two places at once. Naruto didn't know exactly how tough the big guy was, and how much Hayato-sensei was still holding back to preserve chakra for bigger fish, but still . . . maybe he could help out a little.

Kasumi elbowed Ryu. "Naruto's planning something."

Ryu threw an eyeball in Naruto's direction, and nodded once. "How can you tell?"

"Last time we saw that look on his face, he chewed out my Big Brother," she replied.

"Who then started teaching him the Tenshin Mugen style," Ryu whispered back. "Yeah? So? You're probably planning something too. We're kinda in the middle of something here Kasumi-hime, what's your point?"

"What kind of things does Naruto usually come up with?" she asked him, expecting him to figure it out.

Ryu blinked. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

They quickly threw a few more kunai, Kasumi attacking with her senbon needles when she had a clear shot at a disabling pressure point on one or more bandits, then retreated until they were on either side of Naruto.

"What's up?" Ryu asked him, while keeping an eye out for any more approaching bandits.

"I'm going to try and help out Hayato-sensei," the blond answered, seeming to concentrate equally on their surroundings and his internal energies.

"How?" Kasumi put forth, keeping her own eye out.

"Shadow Clone."

Ryu and Kasumi shared a look between themselves and their teammate, before silently nodding.

"Right."

"This is going to be fun," Kasumi muttered, not entirely sarcastic. "Distraction or attack?"

"This is Naruto, Hime," Ryu reminded her.

"Never mind," she rolled her eyes and sighed.

"_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_," Naruto muttered under his breath, a single burst of smoke revealing a single clone. "You know what to do," Naruto told his clone.

"Right Boss! You can count on me!" the clone declared, jumping away with such speed that it looked almost like a _shunshin_.

"A single clone?" Roku asked.

"A single clone is enough," Naruto said with a grin, giving his teammates a look.

"Didn't used to be," Ryu commented with a quiet chuckle. To which Naruto responded, "HEY!"

"Well, we worked hard enough to fix that, didn't we," Kasumi returned with a confident smirk. Ryu and Naruto both grinned back at her and nodded. Roku's eyebrows rose with curiosity. Azula just looked confusedly back and forth between them all and fearfully at the attacking bandits.

The clone appeared in the nearest tree, staring at the back of Tokumetsu, as he fought a progressively more harried and distracted Hayato, who tried to keep attention both on the fight and on the soldiers. Taking out a kunai, the clone focused on the back on the enemy.

Remembering his training, both recent and from long ago at the Academy, the Naruto clone brought up his kunai and started to take aim. The chakra provided to him by his original would help in pulling this off, because otherwise it would have taken the boss himself doing it. Using as much strength as possible, he threw the weapon at the weakest point of the human body – the place were the neck joined together with the head, where no bone was present to protect the spinal cord, and the skull ended to make room for muscles and joints, enabling the head to move about. He also added chakra to 'spin' the leaf-shaped blade so that it could angle and hit the right mark despite the target jumping around.

Tokumetsu peripherally noticed the thrown projectile but didn't care, he was busy blocking a rather powerful lightning attack, which he then pushed aside with his weapon. His arms were a little tingly after, but that was it. The kunai hit dead on, and then simply fell down, having not been able to penetrate Tokumetsu's skin. The massive man turned around to look from where the kunai had come. Although the attack was pitiful, and useless against him, that did not mean any follow-up attack would be equally so.

Keeping an eye on Hayato, who had withdrawn for the moment, thinking of his next move, Tokumetsu rushed over to a tree and bushes from behind which the kunai had come, and eyed Naruto's clone. "What have we here, a cockroach?" Tokumetsu said with a growl.

"Hi," the Naruto-clone said with a huge grin, then waved, while saying, "Bye." He ran up the tree, while making seals, and said, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A whole slew of clones descended upon Tokumetsu, who was covered in blonds a moment later.

With a roar the man exclaimed his reaching of his boiling point. With a rapid cyclone movement, and liberal use of his spiked club, all the clones that had started to attack him turned to smoke. He then simply smashed the tree to pieces, which prompted the remaining clones to jump away from it. As the tree fell, Tokumetsu stepped back into the clearer part of the mountain pass, and was faced with Hayato, and what he thought was the original Naruto and his remaining clones, a mere handful of them.

"This guy's tough, Hayato-sensei," said the first Naruto clone standing right next to Hayato, with the other clones scattered around them.

"Heh, you're still bothering with those useless clones, blondie?" Tokumetsu growled, starting to get seriously pissed off.

"YOU'LL FIND OUT JUST HOW USELESS THEY ARE, BAKA!" the clone screamed out loud. Then to put words into action, about half of the remaining clones spread out and started to rush him, only to scatter at the last second when he would have struck them with his club. After about a minute of dodging the giant's attacks, they started making their own attacks, but only when they could be certain they wouldn't get destroyed in the attempt. The most they managed to do was trip him up a couple of times.

Tokumetsu's face scrunched up with anger, and growled, "Time to stop playing around."

"I agree, bandit-san. Tell me, do you know a shinobi's two greatest weapons?" Hayato asked friendly, smiling coldly at the giant. Tokumetsu just growled and raised his club, preparing to finish them off, but then Hayato raised a finger in the air. "Number 1: teamwork," Hayato spoke, and despite his common sense, Tokumetsu waited to hear number two, "And number 2: subterfuge."

Kasumi and Ryu had appeared from the rocks behind Tokumetsu moments earlier, and had no sooner reached the titan and attacked. Kasumi went high, Ryu went low. Tokumetsu was only aware of a series of slaps across his body, and then he noticed the other two kids jump past him, turning around to face him. Kasumi having bounced by him with flips and jumps was upside down, while Ryu was straight up in somewhat of a crouched position.

"Heh," the lead Naruto clone chuckle and made a signal to the rest with him. As one, they charged Tokumetsu anew, each forming the seal for the _Bunshin Daibakuha _jutsu. Thus completing the Team One _Hi-Lo-Thru Combo_!

"Dodge those," the two spoke in concert as they flew onward, bringing their hands together in the ram seal to detonate the exploding notes they'd just placed. Tokumetsu noticed the exploding notes on his body and managed to pull two off with his great speed, but by then it was too late. The clones reached him and practically wrapped themselves around his waist. They detonated half a beat after the tags did. A massive explosion followed, and covered the man in a giant fireball.

As the explosion echoed away, all fighting seemed to stop. Everyone in the pass at that moment seemed to be holding their breath as they stared at the remains of the explosion, waiting to see what had become of the bandit's 'unbeatable' leader. Survival instincts began to set in as the rest of the bandit army threw down their weapons, and ran off screaming. Meanwhile, the ninja waited anxiously to see how much of a fight they still had left on their hands.

"N-no way!" Ryu exclaimed as the smoke finally cleared away enough to see.

"Natural indeed," Hayato grunted, reaching for the special pouch at his hip.

"*Koff*!" the blackened giant coughed out some smoke and just stood there for a moment, blood dripping down his body from multiple wounds, at places pieces of skin hanging loose where his clothes were soot-ridden rags at this point. But other than that, he was seemingly just fine.

"C-cowards..." he hissed out, clearly in pain as he watched all of his 'troops' flee. "W-we'll finish this... later..." Tokumetsu grumbled, and then slammed what remained of his club into the ground at his feet, which then fell away and filled back in as soon as he was through it and into whatever hidden passage lay beneath.

In a remarkably short amount of time, the bandits had disappeared like they'd never been there in the first place, save for all the damage to the mountain pass. Hayato made sure everyone stayed alert, but had the genin working to clear the front of the pass as quickly as possible while allowing the overwrought guards to regain their composure.

(Stop "First Encounter")

"This is why I wanted to wait a few more nights," Hayato softly said to Roku while the genin labored and the soldiers kept guard. Azula was sat in the wagon beside Kasumi, a blanket over her shoulders and some protection from attack.

"And why I wished to go this route in the first place," Roku countered. "Bandits would attack either way, but at least here we have some advantages."

"Such as? No, don't bother. I'm through arguing about this," Hayato sighed, rubbing his face from the tension of the battle only finished minutes ago. "Even if we turn back, they know we're here and our capabilities. That Tokumetsu is tougher than I expected, and he'll need a few days to heal at the least, but I doubt he's all we'd have to worry about."

"Hardly. He did not strike me as a trap maker or strategic mastermind," Roku agreed.

"But he did use several traps that had already been installed in the area, not to mention that getaway of his. Undoubtedly there are other, more experienced and more powerful fighters we'll have to worry about down the line. I need to rework our strategy a bit. Kasumi!" he called the genin sitting next to Azula. "I'm going to scout around for a bit. You're in charge until I return. Let me know via one of Naruto's clones when the pass is clear again."

"Yes, Hayato-sensei," she acknowledged even as the man disappeared in a swirl of leaves and dust.

_Elsewhere In The Mountains_

_Bandit Camp_

Tokumetsu and his troops returned to the hidden camp to a mix of shame and ridicule. Any that returned from a lost fight would get the same, but the fact that so many of them were injured and more than a third of those that had gone to the ambush came back severely injured or not at all, forced the admission that the target wasn't as easy as they'd first thought.

"Ne, ne, ne Tokumetsu-kun," mocked one of the bandits at the center of the camp, "You looked a bit roughed up there. Don't tell me this 'easy old man and some guards' that you scouted for us did all this to you. Maybe you're not fit to command after all, ne?"

"Shut up, Kai," Tokumetsu growled at the man, and unfortunately that was all he _could_ do. "For starters, besides guards, there were ninja. One of them a jounin. I'd like to see you take him on by yourself! Which, by the way, is what I had to do!"

"Ne, but I'm not suicidal," Kai shrugged. He stood just over 5 feet, neck-length wild brown hair that hangs drooping, crazy-looking brown eyes, and had wiry musculature. He was dressed simply, as they all were, though he wore mostly leather armor in various shades of brown and was one of the remarkably few amongst the bandit camp not carrying a weapon at all times. Tokumetsu had relinquished his club upon entering the camp and was one of the others to carry no weapon.

The last to be absent of arms walked up to the first two, and the eyes of the whole camp were on him. Not as someone to fear or watch, but as someone to respect. This was their leader, Bakato. There were no surnames amongst the bandits. He stands just under 6 feet with short-cropped, spiky brown hair, held up by a dark green headband. He's in his early-twenties, well-tanned skin, has dark eyes, and wears a civilian tunic with various belts strapped all over his body, all of which hold pockets or straps holding something larger to the belts. He also had well calloused hands, showing the men that he worked just as hard, if not harder than they did. The one thing that made him the leader despite the respect he garnered was that he had once attended the ninja academy in Iwa, but he'd left the village before graduating and thus was not considered a _nukenin_, a missing ninja. That didn't mean he allowed his learned skills to falter though.

"Tokumetsu!" Bakato cried upon seeing his fellow leader's condition, "What happened? I heard that you used a few of my traps, but they've never been able to injure you like this before!"

"It... wasn't your traps, Bakato-sama," Tokumetsu humbly replied. "There were ninja with the old man I marked. A jounin and his genin apprentices. Although, those guards with the old man held off the rest of my men, so while I did not face them, they're worth whatever that old man paid for them."

"Are you sure they were paid for guardsmen, ne?" Kai questioned.

"There were a dozen of them!" Tokumetsu growled at his fellow 'second-in-command'. "What other possible reason could one old man and a rich girl have for traveling with twelve well-armed and trained guards and a Konoha ninja squad!?"

"Konoha!!" half the camp suddenly screamed.

"They _are_ the nearest Ninja Village and these mountains are just outside the Fire Nation Capitol," Bakato patiently reminded all of them. "There is also to consider, Tokumetsu, that they might be _family_ guards. You may have stumbled upon a bigger fish than you expected to handle my friend!"

"Ne?" Kai screeched, "How do you figure that Bakato-dono?"

Bakato shot the dark haired bandit a look, and retorted, "I've told you to never call me that Kai. I'm nobody's lord. In answer to your question however, who would be traveling the mountain pass to the Capitol that carried _family guards_ with them in addition to a squad of ninja from Konoha?"

The camp was mostly silent as the vast majority of them started scratching their heads and shrugging. Bakato sighed and finally told them, "A noble of the Daimyo's Court."

"Ah! Oh! Right!" they all nodded along.

"Which means more than just stealing whatever they've got on them. It means... ransom," Bakato grinned, which quickly caught on and soon the whole camp was laughing evilly at the thought of ransoming a noble to the Fire Lord and the Court of Nobles. They might get enough out of it that they could all become nobles themselves they'd be so rich!

"Ne, this means that we can't let this fish get away then, ne?" Kai pointed out with an evil smile.

"Tomorrow, we take the whole group. I'll need three squads, maybe four to help me out. We're going to... prepare things for this ninja and these guards. I'll go ahead and map out the area that I have in mind. Tokumetsu, you're in charge of the camp until I return, and I want you resting and your men recuperating. We're going to need all the help we can get judging by the trouble you had with them. Kai, gather the squads and report to the Last Pass and Forgotten Valley. I'm going to need your earth techniques for a lot of this."

"Of course Bakato-dono. I live to serve, ne," Kai mocked, and then left in a flash before he could be rebuked any further. Bakato just shook his head and left to start planning his traps.

_Mountain Pass_

_Team One's Camp_

_Night_

The group had finally settled into their camp for the night, setting up tents and cooking supper. They only had one fire going, and it took Azula whining for an hour before Hayato finally consented to allow that much. Thankfully it was large enough without being a bonfire to accommodate all of them, ninja, nobles and guards.

"What's your plan, Hayato? To deal with these bandits?" Sgt. Heero asked once everyone was settled.

"Get through the pass as quickly as possible," was the short yet immediate reply.

"The bandits in this area seem to have a tactical advantage over us," Sgt. Ryo commented. "They've also targeted us specifically, most likely because there aren't any caravans scheduled to come through here for quite a while and there's no one else traveling this way. If there were, we would have passed them already, or perhaps the bandits got to them already. I agree with Heero, we need a plan for when we face them again."

"W-w-when? Y-you mean _IF_, right?" Azula whimpered, shivering and huddling closer to Roku.

"... She really should not be here," the white-blond guard, Zechs, stated not even looking at the princess.

"Nothing can be done about that now," Hayato stated in a firm voice before anyone could agree, disagree or argue about it. The facts were the facts and arguing over them wouldn't help matters and they all knew that.

"First and foremost, Sage Roku and Princess Azula's safety is the number one priority," he continued speaking. "Who among your men are the best? Not counting yourselves, because I saw from today's fighting already that you two sergeants are the best I've seen outside of trained ninja. Who would _you_ call the best?"

"Anubis," Sgt. Ryo gestured for the silent armored guard.

"Zechs, after myself. Quatre after him," Sgt. Heero stated.

"Zechs should be the one guarding Azula tomorrow. I saw how he was with that crossbow of his, almost as good as that whip-sword of his. He's able to combine long range and close range as seamlessly as any one and that's what is needed with these bandits. Anybody notice what tactics they used today?"

"Traps," every one of the guards said at once.

"They also used the giant as a distraction," Ryu added. "Most of us put our attention on him and that rocket club weapon of his. Meanwhile we were surrounded and nearly cut off from all escape just standing there like idiots! It was almost..."

"Like ninja tactics..." Kasumi whispered, her eyes widening.

"The traps were set off with exploding notes, and none of them were surprised by Naruto's clone techniques," Hayato nodded to her. "I don't think we have to worry about bandits learning ninjutsu or any _nukenin_ leading and training them. Besides, what they did use was very basic. Almost graduate Academy level, but I've already taught you three numerous tactics more advanced and effective than what we faced today. Nevertheless, it does speak of ninja techniques."

"How did that bastard survive anyway?!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed. "I mean we hit him with real weapons, we put lots of explosive notes directly on him, and I had my clones explode practically in his face! And he still walked away from it! How?!"

"There are people in the world, Naruto," Roku spoke up, "that will surprise you at every turn and have secrets and ways of doing things that you cannot even begin to imagine. I've lived for almost a hundred years now and traveled all over the known world and even to a few unknown locations, and I'm still being surprised by a lot of what people can do.

"I would surmise, however, in answer to your immediate question that this Tokumetsu has an abnormally abundant amount of _ki_ or physical energy. As I'm sure everyone here knows, yes even you Azula, ninja use a power known as chakra, which is a combination, a mixture if you will, of their spiritual energy and their physical energy. The key is that both must be equalized in order to mix together and only that which is successfully combined is what you call chakra and use for your jutsu."

Roku took a gulp of water to clear his throat and continued, "There are people in the world, very unique individuals that have an imbalance between their physical energy and their spiritual energy. Nothing is wrong with them or anything like that, it is merely the way they were born. Some simply have greater spiritual energy than others, more than they have physical energy. These people usually become priests or spiritualists. Some even become very powerful psychics.

"Then there are the people that have greater physical energy or very little spiritual energy in comparison. These people, such as Tokumetsu, are usually quite strong and capable of building their bodies and physical powers to such degrees that even a ninja of comparable strength might be overwhelmed. It is one of the only ways I can fathom this man's near-invulnerability to damage as well as his immense strength. Knowing how tough you are, Hayato, I was surprised to see him land a hit on you in the first place. It looked like it hurt."

"It did," Hayato simply remarked, no obvious emotion in his tone as he stared into the flames.

"Hmph," Roku scoffed and took another gulp of water.

"Those are our assignments, not a plan," Zechs interrupted, bringing attention back to the conversation.

Hayato was silent, staring into the flames of the fire rather than answer.

"How about I bust some skulls by outnumbering them with clones again!" Naruto suggested, smacking his fist into an open palm.

"That hardly worked the first time, what makes you think that they wouldn't be prepared for it a second time!" Kento remarked.

"It worked better than you think," Hayato informed them. "Where the clones were standing, the rockets that were shot out by that man's weapon shouldn't have scratched a percentage of them. Instead over half were wiped out in the initial onslaught."

The men all stiffened, realizing the implications of the jounin's words.

"There were additional traps laid out and if Naruto hadn't gone overboard on making clones when I had meant for him to make a few dozen shadow clones, we probably would have lost that fight. And no one knew this, but thanks to Kasumi and Ryu, the explosive notes we were all sitting on at the time didn't have a chance to blow either. After the initial onslaught, while I faced off against Tokumetsu, they scouted for traps and disabled the ones that would have scattered or killed us if the bandits had wanted it that way. They probably did and seeing that one or more of their traps failing is what sent them running more than me defeating their leader."

"Which is why we need a strategy on getting out of the minefield. Literally!" Duo exclaimed.

"Ah, the eccentricities of the strategist," Roku said loftily. "It makes me ever so happy that I just play for the fun of it rather than depend on it for training as most do these days."

"Grandfather, what are you talking about?" Azula innocently questioned.

"Tell me, Azula-chan, what is my favorite game to play in the whole world?" the old sage asked her.

"Messing with people's heads," she replied instantly, not seeing most of them sweat-drop behind her.

"Eh heheheh," Roku chuckled uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment and to get rid of the sweat drop there too. "No, I meant what is my favorite game that is actually a game?"

"Oh," the dark-haired princess blushed slightly, invisible in the firelight, "Well then it would be Shogi, and Go and the other one is that game from the Far West that you call Monopoly."

"Heheheh..." Roku's sweat drop was even bigger this time. "Well, the first two are well known methods of training one's strategic ability. Generals all over the world often remark how those games help them prepare for when they face real strategies in wartime, and even people in individual battles can use them to help plan out how the enemy will strike and respond to your own counterstrike. I would imagine that is what is giving Hayato pause in outlining what our own strategy will be in avoiding the bandits tomorrow."

"The problem is that Tokumetsu was not the one to set the traps, and though we've seen many different kinds of traps already and from that can know what to expect, none of us have met or faced this particular trap builder before, so it's hard to know what to expect from him," Kasumi pointed out.

"Wow, I didn't think being a ninja would be so, so..." Naruto searched for the right word.

"Hard?" Ryu supplied.

"Dangerous?" Azula offered.

"Mentally taxing?" Kasumi said knowingly.

"Yeah, that," Naruto pointed at Kasumi, "but also... challenging! Yeah, that's the word! I've never had to out think anybody like this before! ANBU always responded the same way to my pranks no matter what I did, so I just had to learn their habits. After that it was easy to pull off all the stuff I did. On the other hand, this is completely different."

"Unfortunately, learning their habits from just a single encounter is not an easy task," Quatre said.

"But not impossible," Hayato said, still staring into the flames. "For right now, everyone just needs to trust their training and know where they have to be. I'm not dropping the topic, I'm merely waiting to decide on a final commitment until we have more information. It's getting late. We should all get some sleep. I'll take the first watch with the Sergeants. Kasumi, Naruto, Ryu. You three will have the last watch in the hours before daybreak. So get your sleep now."

"Heh, some things just don't change," Ryu commented, referring to the early hour they would wake, which was the same hour they woke every day when training with Hayato.

"Get some sleep!" Hayato finally ordered, and everyone turned to their tents or sleeping rolls and tried to get as much sleep as possible before having to wake in the morning.

_Bandit Camp_

_Same Time_

"So, they've set up camp for the night?" Bakato confirmed with the scout he'd sent to spy on the targets.

"Yes, sir," the boy, no older than ten, though he looked smaller than he should. "They also talked about coming up with a plan to deal with us, but I couldn't hear anything specific."

"That's all right Hikari," Bakato patted the boy on his head, playfully ruffling his hair. "You did a good job. Go ahead and go to your mother. You've earned yourself a full meal tonight."

Once the boy had run off to a hidden hut in the mountain's rock wall, Bakato turned to his own hide away home and joined his fellow bandit leaders at the table in the center of the structure.

"Ne. We should attack them now, while we know where they are and when they aren't going to be moving any time soon, ne," Kai argued.

"No," Bakato immediately denied the request. "They're in the forested area just before the ravine. We'll attack them once they're past the ravine, blowing the bridge so they have no choice but to walk into our web. Besides, it's night and we'd only end up losing men in an attack with no guarantee of gaining anything out of it."

"So?" Kai scoffed, like the idea of losing men was inconsequential.

Bakato glared at the man and grabbed him up by his collar. "I am not about to risk my people's lives just because you refuse to see the big picture and have no patience, Kai! If you're so eager for a fight, go by yourself with as many as you can convince to follow you and attack them, in the dark, in _their_ camp, where they can escape in any direction they choose. Tokumetsu told you about the genin that created over a _hundred_ solid clones and was only winded for _a few minutes_! Are you really so stupid that you don't think that in an unprepared area that you can take out someone that can outnumber you in an instant?"

Kai gulped and was definitely sweating by now. That was the problem with Bakato, in the younger bandit's opinion, is that he thought everything through before taking even a single step. Unfortunately for Kai, this made Bakato very successful in staying alive and out of prison, but it also meant that he didn't get to have as much fun if they just went wherever the hell they pleased whenever they wanted.

This made Bakato very popular among the men that had joined them as fighters and brought their families with them, which made it very difficult for those like Kai to wrest control from the popular young bandit. On the other hand, Bakato was usually right when it came to stuff like this, and Kai was more of an impulsive sort and he couldn't stand all the kids running around, so even if he was in charge, the entire group would break up as soon as that happened leaving Kai with just whoever he could strong arm into coming with him and they'd probably be in prison before the week was out. Best to just stay Bakato's second-in-command, or just until he got too annoying. At least he still got to have fun on occasion, and staying out of prison helped.

"We stick to the plan and wait for them to get past the ravine before attacking, is that understood?" Bakato released Kai, looking directly into his eyes as he waited the answer to his demand.

"H-h-hai," Kai gulped, admitting that Bakato could also be very scary when he wanted to be.

"Good," the trap builder stood up before resuming his seat at the table. "I didn't run from the Earth Nation just to be caught in the Fire Nation. Heh. And who would have thought failing to pass the Iwa Ninja Academy three times in a row would be such a blessing in disguise? After all, I got all the training I could squeeze out of the instructors and when I finally left the village, they couldn't label me a nukenin because I hadn't even graduated! Didn't stop me from training though, and training both of you in case you forgot."

"Ne, I haven't forgotten Bakato-dono," Kai submissively replied.

"Heh, you saved my life at least a couple dozen times, not to mention what you've done for all these people, Bakato," Tokumetsu, still in bandages, remarked. "I just hope that those brats and old man don't move too quickly. I want another shot at them, and according to the doc, it's gonna be a week before I'm healed enough to fight. Even with the rapid healing stuff you showed me I could do."

"I wouldn't be too worried about that," Bakato grinned, adjusting the dark green headband that held his spiky brown hair out of his face. "Knowing experienced ninja like I do, the jounin is going to slow their progress down for at least a day. It's going to take them another two days before they reach the ravine from where they're currently camped. They'll probably reach it in a day and a half, but once he sees that ravine, the jounin will have them stop for a day and send the guards and his genin out to scout the area. That will buy us a whole day at the least to finish preparations. When they finally cross the bridge, as there is no other way across if they want to continue on to the Capitol, we'll blow the bridge, trapping them in our web. Hahahahahah!"

Tokumetsu and Kai joined their leader in his maniacal laughter. They'd soon have a noble, or two, of their very own to ransom, making them all rich beyond their wildest dreams. And who knows what condition the ninja would be in after they were done with them. The kunoichi in particular had caught Kai's interest, just from the descriptions of her being passed around by the survivors of Tokumetsu's attack on them.

"OK enough," Bakato stated and the laughter stopped. "If you really want something to do Kai, you can go out to the Forgotten Valley and finish up the traps that you left half finished out there. Tokumetsu, you get some rest and heal up. I want you there as much as you want to be there, so that means resting and listening to the Doc. All right?"

"Yeah, I got it," the giant grumbled and left to his own spot to rest and meditate on healing.

"Ne, you're right," Kai got to his own feet. "I shouldn't have left that stuff half finished like that, ne. I'd better get it done before that jounin sends out his scouts, ne? Night, Bakato-dono!"

"And don't call me 'Lord'!" Bakato shouted at the bandit commander after he'd already left.

The bandit leader sighed and decided to go ahead and turn in himself. It would be a busy week, but hopefully, Kami willing, also a very profitable one. He was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

_Mountain Pass_

_Kazan Ravine_

_Two Days Later_

Hayato pushed the group as hard as he dared, forcing everyone to run rather than walk, sending the genin out ahead and behind in a roving patrol to detect any trace of the bandits at all, and only stopping to rest the horses pulling the cart. They actually made it from their first campsite to the ravine in less than one day's time, reaching the edge just as the sun was setting. Ryu soon found the bridge across only a kilometer from where they first came across the landmark, but it was already night and it had been a long day, so they set up camp where they rested and waited until daybreak before continuing any further.

Once the jounin saw the ravine, and the _only_ bridge across it in who knows how far in either direction, the game plan became suddenly clear. He spent the whole of dinner that night asking questions about the area from Roku, the guards, even Ryu and Kasumi if they'd been anywhere near the area before. After that, he took catnaps and spent the rest of the time just staring into the fire while thinking of what to do once they crossed the ravine. Because once they did, he knew there was no going back.

Going back right now was still an option, but Roku wanted to get home and as he said continuously every time Hayato or the guards suggested turning back for his and Azula's safety, so it was more a final option more than anything else. Until they crossed that bridge. Then their only options became surrendering and dying, or fighting and dying, or the preferable option of fighting and running away as fast as they could for the Capitol and the nearest military outpost.

Roku would press on and Hayato and the guards would have no choice but to follow. So the only option left to the Jounin Sensei was _how_ they were going to fight and run. He spent the entire night going over numerous tactics and overall strategies they could employ, but without knowing the name of their true adversary, he might as well be fighting blindfolded in a dark room with an infinite number of enemies, all of which could kill him with a touch!

Once they woke in the morning, Hayato kept the same pace he'd pushed them through the day before and they were across the ravine and a few kilometers further down the pass before the sun was fully above the horizon. An hour after they crossed however, they all heard a distant explosion behind them and Hayato knew that the bridge had been blown out. Even if they were inclined to, had they gone back they would have been driven into a corner they never would have gotten out of. Instead, Hayato hurried them along and had Naruto and Ryu take the horses' place in pulling the cart when it came time to rest the animals.

"You're panicking," Roku observed of the jounin about mid-morning.

"You're not giving me any choice," Hayato snapped at the sage. "Two squads of guards and a rookie genin team are not enough to protect you from these bandits, whoever they are! If it were _just _you and my team, we _might_ be able to sneak past them at some juncture, but by sticking to the main pass... we're ducks in a pond swimming into a fisher's net. The question is; can we claw our way out before the fisherman throws the knife to put us out of our misery."

"I never knew you were so cynical, Hayato," Roku chuckled, like the man had just told a joke.

"It's called Life and Experience," the jounin morosely replied.

Approaching noon, Azula started to complain and ask when they would be stopping for midday meal, but Hayato shushed her every time. He stood alert and his eyes were seen tracking every sound outside of the perimeter, despite having Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu running constant patrols around their position. The guards were equally alert and ready for anything.

Finally, Roku had had enough, so to speak, and turned to his granddaughter and explained the situation to her. "Azula, my dear, do you know what is going on right now?"

"Well of course I do!" she snapped at him, crossing her arms petulantly. "We're on our way home, running from bandits that want to hurt us, but nobody is listening to me when I tell them that I'm tired and want to rest. Besides, my butt is sore from all the rocking this cart does. My carriage is never this bad!"

"I'm sure it's not. I would also remind you that you _could_ have gone home in your carriage with all the other guards you brought with you and they'd have no problem coming and going at your whim. In fact, I am sure that many of them would quite enjoy it. However," he gave her a stern look, "you chose instead to come with me, even after I explained the conditions you would have to endure for no longer than a week or so."

"I know," Azula said, looking down at her lap, "And I thought I understood what you meant, I honestly did, but... This is _not_ what I'm used to at all! How can you stand going places like this Grandfather?"

"I've gotten used to it over the years," he admitted to her with a smile. "I might even say that I prefer this method of travel to all the fanfare that you brought with you the day I left Konoha. This is simpler. Dangerous, for sure, but much faster and far simpler than taking a full company all across the country just for one old man."

"Grandfather, you're not _just_ anyone!" Azula protested.

"I know that, and worse yet, the Fire Lord knows it too. But do you know this, Azula? That the reason we cannot stop, the reason we are hurrying so, is because our protectors know what stands against them. An army of thieves and brigands wants to take us and at the very least ransom us to the Fire Lord. A squad of ninja and twelve men do not stand much chance against an army. Especially on their home ground."

Azula pouted thoughtfully, thinking about what he'd told her.

"So why not call for help from that fort we stayed at a couple nights ago? Get them to bring their troops to distract the bandits and sneak past?" she finally asked. She pointed at Naruto, "Have him send his clones with the message. He's certainly good enough with them."

"Already tried that," Naruto and Hayato said at the same time. Naruto continued in saying, "Right after the battle, Hayato-sensei had me make a dozen clones and send them back to the Army Fort. They were dispelled less than an hour after I sent them off, taken out by traps and bandits. I even tried sending more just before sundown! Same thing!"

"We're on our own," Hayato stated. "And the reason, before you ask, that we're staying on the pass instead of finding other paths through the mountains is the same reason Sage Roku gave to you for our hurry. The bandits know this area better than we do, and stealth is no longer an option. Therefore we have to go with speed and move through the pass as quickly as we can."

"Oh," Azula mumbled, looking down at her lap again.

"Don't worry Azula-sama," Zechs comforted the girl, patting his specialized weapons, which he kept in his lap while holding onto the reins, "We will protect you and your grandfather and get you both home safely. Even if we have to die to ensure that happens, I swear to you that it will happen."

Azula looked up in shock at the guardsman. She rarely spoke to those assigned to protect her all the time, but this was the first time she'd heard the raw conviction they all had in their duty to safeguard her from harm. Seeing this masked, white-blond haired man swear to give his life to save hers was more than she'd expected. She almost didn't know how to handle it, until he lifted his helmet and smiled at her with warm blue eyes, and she felt a lot better about the situation all of a sudden.

"I... I believe you," she said. "Thank you."

Zechs readjusted his masked helmet and nodded at her. "No thanks are needed, Your Highness. Still, you are welcome. Now then, lets..."

"ZECHS!" Quatre from the front suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention.

Zechs looked up and saw a crossbow bolt... headed straight for his left eye!

A black blur suddenly clouded the guard's vision, even as he was pushing the nobles down into the cart to save them from the attack, and the next thing he saw was the young genin, Ryu, holding the bolt with both hands and glaring at the grove of trees half a kilometer off the left side of the pass.

"There's no one there," he stated, his gaze shifted all over the area. "No chakra signature. It was either a long distance shot, or another prearranged trap that either we or they set off when we passed."

"Good aim," Duo joked. Zechs shot him a glare from beneath his helmet.

"It's a short range bolt," Sgt. Heero observed from the weapon. "Lots of power, can pierce armor, but useless outside of a hundred meters. I think this was meant to scare us."

"Let's move," Hayato ordered, getting them moving again at the same pace, but with everyone twice as alert than before. Azula stopped making complaints and even started trying to see if she could detect the enemy too. She wasn't having much luck, and she didn't want to distract anyone by asking more questions.

After a half hour or so, they came to a rise in the land and the forests that had framed the pass for days now suddenly fell away to reveal a rocky plain where not even grass grew. There were cliffs, boulders, cracks in the earth leading to gorges and maybe even a canyon or two, yet hardly any vegetation worth mentioning at all. They pressed on for another half hour until Hayato suddenly pulled them all up short.

"Stop," he ordered.

"What is it sensei?" Kasumi questioned, trying to understand why they were stopping when they should be running still.

Before he could answer, Ryu's eyes went wide and he cursed out loud. "Oh shit!"

"Huh, what? What is it?!" Naruto exclaimed, until he caught onto the hint the same time Kasumi did and they both opened up their chakra senses and focused more on their immediate surroundings.

"Oh shit," they both agreed with their teammate. They were now _literally_ surrounded by chakra signatures. The thing was though, none of them were strong enough to be near human chakra levels, not even a civilian's. Nevertheless, they could recognize the feeling of _charged_ exploding tags, buried all around them in every direction, and it was a safe bet to say that they were literally in the middle of a minefield!

"It would seem," Roku observed with a sour expression, "that we have fallen into the bandits' trap. Fitting place for it. This area of the mountains is known as the Forgotten Valley, just before the Last Pass. Because it seems as though it has been forgotten about by the gods."

Suddenly they heard clapping. "Very impressive. Maybe our meal ticket is worth more than we thought it was gentlemen." About thirty meters behind them, standing atop one of the cliffs of the area, was a tall man with brown hair and straps covered in weapons and tools all over his arms, legs, and torso. Beside him on either side was the giant Tokumetsu, and a shorter man with wild brown hair and a wiry build. Behind them and all around the area in small groups was over one hundred men, each carrying weapons of their own.

_Forgotten Valley_

_Mountain Pass_

"Here's the plan," Hayato said while glaring at the bandit leaders in the distance. "Best close-range fighters stay here, _no matter what_! Rowan, Heero, Trowa, Zechs. You guys are our long-range artillery. If it is not a kill or disable shot, don't take it. Everyone else, meet the enemies attacks, but do not leave the cart and _do not_ go more than ten meters from it in any direction. You three," he pointed to his genin, "Stick together. _No matter what_! Roku-sama, Azula-sama, please stay in the cart. My team and I will be on offense for now."

He straightened and stepped forward. "I'm going after the leaders."

"By yourself, Hayato-sensei?" Naruto asked, concerned.

Hayato's only reply was to open the catches at the special weapon pouch at his hip. The genin and Roku's eyes all went wide at the action and no more questions were asked.

Kasumi took a moment to look around and see what was arrayed against them. She quickly tallied the odds and decided that, just to be sure, they needed an extra ace in the deck so to speak.

"Guys," she whispered to Naruto and Ryu, "Remember that jutsu we've been working on the past few weeks? Not the weapons, but the one that lets us use the weapons finally?"

Ryu's eyes went wide, surprise clearly showing on his face, while Naruto looked confused for a second longer before understanding lit up behind his own eyes. Then he too looked surprised, figuring out what she was saying to them.

"You... want to use that here? Now?" Naruto questioned.

"We haven't exactly perfected it you know," Ryu said. "We don't even know if there's a range limit or if it can be broken or anything like that yet! It's too dangerous!"

"We need an advantage, and these bandits already know about Naruto's clones. We need an extra advantage." Seeing she wasn't reaching them, she added, "Working together like that, we matched and beat a jounin! _Twice_! If it's overkill, well then think of it as a chance to field-test the jutsu."

"And I thought Naruto was the impulsive one while I'm supposed to be the suicidal one," Ryu muttered, shaking his head. "Fine, but we need time to set it up, and I don't think they're going to give it to us."

"Sensei!" Kasumi called, just in time too, as Hayato had been about to charge.

"If there's not something really dangerous that I don't know or a key piece of information that will get us out of this trap, Kasumi," he growled at her, glaring over his left shoulder, "I suggest you get back with your teammates and start planning on how to win this fight."

"That's just it," Kasumi told him, "We want to use the _Buntai no jutsu_, but we need at least three minutes to set up for it. The moment we start, they're going to attack."

Hayato glared at her for another few seconds, before facing front again. Then he quietly told her, "Get started. I'll hold them off until you're ready."

Almost surprised, she only hesitated a moment before nodding her head and racing back to her teammates. They all quickly got into position, holding out their hands in the middle and started channeling their chakra in preparation.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

"They're up to something, ne," Kai pointed out to Bakato. "Should we...?"

"No," Bakato smirked knowingly. "Set off the first round of traps only. Don't want to damage the merchandise, but let's make sure they know we're serious." He nodded his head to Tokumetsu, who nodded back, then slammed his club down onto a very specific spot at their feet.

The ninja all felt the chakra surge and could almost follow it along the pathways of seals, wires, and conduits to the trap almost literally beneath their feet. Hayato acted first, giving his genin the time they needed to prepare for the fight to come.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

(Play "Mountain Fight")

"I got it! Finish what you need to do!" he ordered, pulling out his chakra blade weapon, **_Sutamasurao_****, and activating it with a surge of his own chakra.**

** *****SNAP*****_Hissss_****! The meter long blue-white blade made of pure chakra extended. He stood poised for exactly the duration of one heartbeat, and in the next, before the bandits even had time to truly react, he charged right at the bandit leaders with a blazing burst of speed!**

** "Shit! Do it now Tokumetsu!" Bakato ordered. The giant said nothing in reply however as the traps were already going off.**

** Small pouches of gunpowder, which wouldn't do any harm even if you held it in your bare hand, went off and smoke filled the area, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in either direction. Unfortunately the wind did not seem to be blowing in the area at the moment because the smoke just hung in the air rather than dissipate after a minute or two. Hayato, however, was still clearly identifiable as his energy blade was clearly seen even outside the smokescreen. And he was still moving forward.**

** "No, I meant activate the entire grid, NOW!" Bakato screamed, pulling out some exploding shuriken and throwing them right at the oncoming chakra sword. The blue shaft of lightning shifted twice, there were a couple muffled explosions, and it kept on coming, not even slowing down.**

** Tokumetsu, eyes wide, raised his club again and this time hit a different spot, a large rock. The club shattered it, and by that action, triggered the restrained chakra pathways laid out and 'arming' every single one of the traps in the entire valley. Hayato stopped moving, the sword stationary in the smoke, and the man having barely made it so his feet were on a couple non-trapped stones jutting out from the earth. That was as far as he could get though, at least until the smoke cleared and he became able to see an alternative.**

** In the center of the smokescreen, the genin of Team One weren't wasting the time their sensei was buying them. Once their chakra was ready and balanced they channeled the energy down their arms and out their hands to intermingle with one ****another's.**

** "****_Chakra Gattai_****!" they all exclaimed. Softly.**

** The chakra mixed and then began to flow back into them at a much greater intensity.**

** "Ready?" Kasumi whispered, sounding strained.**

** "As we'll ever be," Ryu whispered back.**

** Naruto said nothing for a moment, focusing instead on shaping the chakra the way that he wanted to, forming chakra strings out of the extra burst he'd just gotten and attaching them to his friends and teammates' bodies. When he was ready, and felt them attach their own, he felt an odd impulse to speak the name of their unnamed jutsu. What was even more odd was that at the exact same moment, Kasumi and Ryu said the exact same thing at the exact same time.**

** "****_Buntai no jutsu: Ikko Dageki_****!" (Team Technique: Team One Strike!)**

** Suddenly everything became crystal clear and sharp to Naruto's mind, while Ryu felt full of energy and Kasumi was filled with a boundless confidence. They straightened for a moment, and before that moment was even through, they were in motion. Despite the smokescreen and being unable to see each other or their surroundings, they still moved as though they knew exactly where everything and everyone was around them.**

** Naruto dove low and started running straight out into the field, his chakra sense fully active and telling him exactly where it was safe to step. At the same moment, Kasumi leaped over their heads, legs spread for balance as she pushed off a running Naruto's back, and then kicked smoothly off Ryu's shoulder, even while the black-clad ninja dashed in the opposite direction Naruto went in. Once she was on the other side of the cart, Kasumi landed in a smooth crouch and was up and racing through the field in the remaining compass direction.**

** It was done so fluidly and without even a flicker of hesitation on any of their parts that everyone figured they must have practiced for hours, if not weeks to get that good. That it was done while visibility was nil made it all the more impressive. The fun was only just getting started though.**

Naruto reached his targets first, but then again he'd also set off all of the exploding traps that lay between his starting point and them. He just moved too fast to be caught in the explosions, in fact the force from each blast actually accelerated him even faster so he was clear of the next and thereby blowing most of the smokescreen away in the process. Once he was in the 'safe area', or as he was currently thinking of it, the 'target zone', he jumped high up overhead and without even bothering to call the jutsu name, created a few dozen shadow clones, all of them throwing shuriken and using _Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ the moment they were fully formed. A lot of the bandits just stood there and screamed, but most had the good sense to run away instead.

Kasumi, being the fastest and nimblest of the ninja present, reached her targets next. Unlike Naruto, she deftly and easily avoided every single one of the traps in her path, finding and detecting the precise spots where it was safe to step and the exact way to dodge them while moving at near _shunshin_ speeds. _Near_ those speeds because the bandits could still see and follow her progress as she neared them. In less than fifty seconds, she'd closed the distance and was inside the safe area where no traps were lain, and all the bandits stood ready.

They didn't expect much trouble from her, despite how quickly she moved. She was a girl, and while they didn't know what ninjutsu she could use, they all felt they outclassed her in fist and weapon fighting. After she threw her first senbon needle and kicked one of them so hard between the legs that he flew over everyone's heads to land head first on a capture trap (he was buried up to his ankles, what would have been his neck), they all quickly changed their minds. The worst of it though, as they were soon to learn, was when she used _Senbon Kage Bunshin no jutsu_, because just as Naruto had been learning how to control the flight of his shuriken, Kasumi had been doing the same with her senbon needles, and she'd figured out how to do that cold with a _Senbon Kage Bunshin_ so that every needle-clone she created, landed in every single disabling pressure point that she knew of on whatever target she hit. She didn't do it for every bandit she faced, only for those when she saw an opportunity for it and had the proper angle. Still, it taught the bandits to run every time she pulled out even one needle.

Ryu, as tended to be the case in everything of late, was a cross between his two teammates in his approach to his own targets. He opted to run and avoid setting off each trap, but he didn't quite make it through without setting off a few here and there. He really enjoyed setting off the explosion traps, for the simple fact that they tended to damage or erase all other nearby traps, and a few times he even deliberately set them off to clear the area he was about to jump to. Unlike his teammates however, the group of bandits he targeted weren't just standing around staring at him. Those with long range weapons, crossbows, bows and arrows, even a few spears were cast at him with the intention to kill him, but he always managed to just get out of the way. Thanks to the team jutsu, his reaction times were off the charts. He even caught a few of the spears and bigger arrows and threw them back, with much greater accuracy than their original wielders.

When he finally breached the safe area, he didn't even pause before flashing through a few quick hand seals and shot out a half dozen fireballs in a wide spread. A few of the bandits caught on fire, and the rest did their best to dodge. The technique served its purpose however, giving Ryu enough breathing space to pull out his kunai and enough exploding tags to wrap around each of them. It had taken him three days of chakra control exercises and another two of practice with the jutsu, but he'd finally gotten it a few days before they got this mission.

Throwing a single tag-wrapped kunai towards the central mass of the bandits' ranks, he used his specialized _Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu_. Or rather his _Kunai Kage Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_! (Exploding Kunai Shadow Clone technique!)

A full ten-spread of tagged kunai formed and exploded only a second after forming. It was a side-effect of the chakra used to make the jutsu work in the first place, it activated the explosion seal on the tag, but thankfully only after all the tags and kunai had fully formed. It was why he'd needed two days of working on just the jutsu itself, as he'd needed to work on his timing so that the kunai-copies were formed far enough away from him and close enough to the target to be effective. After that, and showing he had plenty of ammo to continue his barrage, this group of bandits too finally broke ranks and ran from him.

During all this, Hayato wasn't being idle. The moment Naruto set off the first explosion, the smokescreen let up just enough for him to see once more, and get a bearing on his targets. He didn't have to be right in front of them to attack them thankfully, but he did need to be within a certain range, and because of the smokescreen he hadn't been able to do that. Now seeing at least the shadowed figures of his targets, Hayato quickly unleashed his attack that he'd been preparing since the moment he revealed **_Sutamasurao_****!**

** "****_Engetsu_****!" he cried out and raised the blade with both hands above his head, arms fully extended, and then brought it crashing down to strike the ground so fast that it looked like a solid arch of blue-white energy. The moment the chakra blade struck the ground, the energy he'd been building up was unleashed in full. Seeing as these were not genin he was testing, Hayato saw no reason to hold back this time in using his weapon.**

** A wave of raw energy spread out from Hayato's feet, where the blade had struck, and towards the bandit leaders location. It moved quickly, as quickly as Hayato himself could move, maybe faster. The ground was displaced by the passing energy, and there was so much of it that it broke through in places, allowing some of the energy to escape prematurely, creating the effect of bursts of the same blue-white electrical energy shooting straight up into the sky as pillars of light from the ground. When it finally struck, a hundred meters or so away, the energy overloaded itself and there was a powerful explosion, most of it in the form of shrapnel from the ground.**

** Bakato saw this coming and gave the signal for an immediate withdrawal. The bandits fled, running away as fast as they could, the explosion of Hayato's attack urging them further on. As a bonus, Hayato's attack also wiped away all of the traps laid in front of his position, though unfortunately none of the bandits, particularly the bandit leaders, were taken out. Yet.**

** Seeing they were still running, he decided to encourage the viewpoint of leaving his team and his clients alone, or else, and chased after them, flashing forward to catch up with the stragglers. He quickly had them running for the hills, screaming in fright, from him and his chakra-weapon.**

Unfortunately, there were a lot more bandits than four or five groups, and the ninja had no way of knowing that the bandits had an actual plan, one in which involved retreating the moment they were attacked. Once they had retreated and all of those capable of attacking were separated from one another, the trap was sprung.

As he evaded the jounin with the energy sword, Bakato pulled a simple looking kunai from one of his own pockets, and as he was running, he threw it at a rather unremarkable and hard to spot and easy to miss 'X' carved in the side of the rock he passed on his right. Hayato saw the move and his eyes widened. Too late, he tried to retreat and retrieve his team and order them back to the clients.

All around them, the earth started shaking and rumbling, like a giant turning over in his sleep. The bandits all vanished, finding hiding spots or nearby escape tunnels that they ran to, leaving the ninja standing alone out in the open as the earthquake intensified. Just as suddenly, they were no longer on an open plane of a forgotten valley of rocks. The earth shot up in spires, spikes, and shelves, as cracks formed, closed, and shifted all over the place. By the time everything stilled and the shaking stopped, the open plane had changed into a stone maze, which might have been natural if not for the way that it was formed and the fact that some of the paths were just as clearly man-made.

"Shit," Hayato cursed, looking around his situation and realizing what it meant.

"Gotcha," Bakato said smugly, looking down from a safe spot above the maze. Though none of them could see him, he could see all the players at the moment. The armored guards and the old man and young noblewoman at the center. And then the four ninja, all separated in a different part of his _Doton: Meikyuuishi no jutsu_ (Earth Release: Stone Maze Technique) and unable to reach the others of their group, completely separated.

"Gentlemen," he said to his fellow bandits, "Let's begin, shall we?"

(Pause "Mountain Fight")

_Forgotten Valley_

_Stone Maze_

_Roku_

The smoke had cleared, but was almost immediately replaced by some kind of stone maze, the result of some insidious jutsu the bandits had gotten their hands on no doubt. Unfortunately, rather that put walls around them and box them in, the maze lifted the ground they were standing on and a good meter outside their perimeter until they were on a mesa in the center of the stone maze, at least ten or fifteen feet higher than the surrounding ground.

"Well, this isn't good," Duo remarked, shouldering his scythe.

"Wh-what happened? And why isn't being out of the maze a good thing?" Azula quietly asked.

"It would seem we stepped into a rather extensive trap of some kind. My own fault I suppose," Roku was forced to admit. "As to why being where we are like this being a bad thing, well... For one, we are highly exposed, with no means of cover and in a position that anyone can see us from any angle and target us for long range attack. The only good part of this is that they cannot get close enough to attack directly, I suppose..."

"Want to bet on that?" Kento growled, adjusting his weapon so it would be ready anytime.

"The same people that created this stone maze also raised the area we're standing on," Heero pointed out to the nobles. "They could just as easily have made the raised area hollow and connected underground tunnels to it in order to subdue us, capture us, or even kill us without being able to stop them. You two stay in the cart. We'll handle this until the ninja return."

"How can he talk so... calmly like that? With everything going on?" Azula asked her grandfather.

The white-haired man sighed and answered, "Unfortunately, there are soldiers that have seen things that young people should never have to face. Men that see that sort of thing so often either break under the pressure, or it finally gets to the point where it just doesn't bother them anymore. For the rest... for those in command, they have to force themselves to appear unaffected by such things, for the sake of their men, so that those that look to them for leadership can take heart and strength from them. Sergeant Heero strikes me as such a man, Azula-chan. I suggest you borrow some of his strength until this is all over with."

Azula, wide-eyed, just nodded and stared over at the sergeant, keeping quiet.

"I'm not really someone you want to look up to, I'm afraid," the sergeant said with no emotion.

Azula blinked, while Roku and the other guards all laughed and chuckled. Finally she sighed and rolled her eyes. Adults never made any sense to her anyway.

Before the levity could continue, however, the bandits seem to lose patience as the attack began.

It started with long-range attacks; flaming arrows, thrown stones, exploding charges and cannons and the like. Though to the naked eye, the samurai troopers had no obvious defense to this onslaught, they very quickly demonstrated that this was not the case.

"Heero!" Ryo shouted, pointing.

The white and blue armored soldier just nodded and put away his sword before raising his shield. Looking back briefly, he asked the Sage and his granddaughter, "I'm sure it's been discussed before, but do either of you know why it is Samurai can survive in a world where ninja are the primary military resources of governments?"

Without waiting for the answer, he raised his shield like it was some kind of crossbow, but there was something beneath it, attached to the shield yet not a part of it. Yellow-gold energy began to gather at the pointed end until it suddenly exploded in a display of violent kinetic energy. A beam of yellow light shot into the sky and as Sgt. Heero moved his weapon, the beam arced across the sky, eradicating all of the long range weapons in the path as it passed.

When he stopped and the beam of light faded, there was no sign of the bandits attacking at all. He lowered his shield and hid the attachment once more. "Ninja aren't the only ones that can use chakra," he finished saying to the nobles.

"Heh," Kento scoffed. "Show off."

"Would you have cared to try and stop all those weapons?" Sgt. Ryo asked his squad-member.

"Uh..." Kento blushed and adjusted his own weapon. "Never mind."

"We have more coming, and I can only use my Buster Shot three times a day," Sgt. Heero informed them. "After that I'll be useless in the fight. We need to find a way out of this mess."

"I'll handle the next wave, if there is one," Zechs said. "And if they did have a tunnel beneath us, I think they would have used it already. We just have to be on the look out for..."

"For that," Duo pointed.

Just over the top of the maze, right across from them and seeming on a bridge that lead right to their location, was roughly thirty to forty men, wearing make-shod armor and hand-made or stolen weapons of knives, clubs, and swords.

"Looks like this fight is just getting started," Rowen commented as he notched his bow with an arrow and began to take aim. "Hope the ninja join us soon, otherwise we'll have all the fun."

"I'm more worried that we may get too much of the fun and them not enough," Ryo said as he drew his twin katana.

"Only thing we can do is hold out until they get back to us," Heero stated plainly.

"Yeah, and hope that there's something for them to come back to," Duo added with a gulp.

_Forgotten Valley_

_Stone Maze_

_Naruto_

(Play "Mountain Fight")

Naruto cursed silently to himself as he ran through the narrow stone corridor he found himself in. Every once in a while he came across an armed bandit that would try to ambush him, but thanks to their Buntai jutsu still being active his senses were all on hyper alert and he was already knocking them out by the time they were uncovered from their hiding spot.

The really cool part, at least to Naruto, was how all the taijutsu skills he'd been learning recently were really coming to the fore. He'd thought he might be wasting his time, but his body, even while dashing from point to point, his body automatically adjusted from position to position, striking with rock solid punches and hard kicks. The bandits that attacked him never had a chance between that and his connection to his teammates.

Unfortunately, they were running low on the fused-chakra that they used to maintain the connections between them. Well that, or they were getting further away from one another and there was some kind of limit on how far away they could stay connected. After all, they had only just gotten the thing to work somewhat recently, there hadn't been time to fully test it out for everything.

Naruto was trying to get closer to them, but every time he tried, he wound up running into a dead end and he felt the lines connecting him to his teammates stretching thinner and thinner with each new corner he took. What made it worse was when they first tried jumping on the walls and climbing to the top of the maze. While he had a feeling it was a different experience for each of them, he knew that all three of them had failed to climb to the top of the maze. With him, it had been the walls turning to mud and somehow resisting his chakra so he couldn't use the tree-climbing exercise. He was starting to get desperate, and it was only the feeling of being connected to his friends that was keeping him from outright panic at the moment.

A few minutes ago, he'd seen a yellow beam of light shoot into the sky and upon feeling a 'tug' from the chakra strings connecting him to the others, he knew that they'd seen it too, so now they were all heading to where they hoped either Hayato-sensei, or Roku-jiisan were at the moment.

Just as he turned down one path that he was certain would lead towards Roku and the others though, he felt a chakra surge and it was only a 'tug' he felt from Ryu and Kasumi that had him leaping back mere moments before he would have been impaled by a dozen rock spikes that shot out of the ground and walls of the path he'd been about to go down.

As he watched though, they slowly retracted back into the earth until the path was clear once more. He wasn't fooled though. Seeing no other ways that would get him to where he wanted to go, only away from there, he made a quick decision. He started stretching his legs, and doing the breathing exercises Gouken-sensei had been teaching him. Knowing he'd be dead if he screwed this up, but determined not to, Naruto readied himself and started moving before he could change his mind.

To those watching, they couldn't believe their eyes that someone could be that stupid. There was no way a 12 year old brat could outrun the traps set up in front of him. Besides the spikes, there were also pitfalls, projectiles, giant boulders, walls that come out of nowhere, and a dozen other things to crush and pulverize anyone stepping in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Then they saw him dash in... and the spike shot up right under his foot.

Despite the running lessons Hayato had been giving his young pupil, there was no reason to expect jounin level speed from him any time soon. Even if he trained with weights and ran hundreds of laps around Konoha a day, in the month that he'd been training there was no way Naruto could seriously outrun those spikes that shot up the instant they were touched.

On the other hand, Naruto _had_ been jumping, running up and down, and landing from Konoha's giant trees, practicing switching the chakra output to his legs so that he could survive landing from such a high jump without injuring himself. He was also quite adept at channeling stronger chakra pads to his feet when holding a heavy pole while walking on water that would sooner let it sink to the bottom than let it float.

So while Naruto was a bit disappointed that he wasn't as fast as he'd hoped, he was definitely prepared for that contingency.

Thus, everyone watching and hoping to see the blond idiot get himself impaled, dropped their jaws in amazement when they saw him rocketed up into the sky over the maze as the spike that _should_ have impaled him, instead shot him up and over the rest of the traps behind it.

"Whooaa-ahaaoaaaooh!" Naruto screamed as he cartwheeled through the air. Right about that same time, Ryu and Kasumi both looked up, feeling a dangerous tug on their connection to Naruto that told them he was in trouble. Unfortunately, neither of them were in any position to help him out, no matter how much they wanted to.

"Oh crap! I'm gonna go splat unless..." Naruto's brain kicked into overdrive for exactly one second before switching back to panic mode. Thankfully that was just long enough for him to remember one of his new tactics.

"_Kage Bunshin no jutsu!_" he shouted, the clone appearing on the ground some ten feet below him. It then disappeared in smoke when spikes impaled it.

"OH COME ON! You've GOT TO BE _KIDDING ME_!!" he screamed and then created two more shadow clones on either side of him. They grabbed his arms and threw him further up in the air, but hopefully in the direction of the wagon. They didn't exactly have time to aim.

"Let's try this again!" Naruto shouted to himself. "_Kage Bunshin no jutsu_!"

The clone appear some thirty feet below him, but that was still another twenty feet from the ground and where it crash landed happened to be another trap, this one the exploding kind.

He waited two seconds and tried again in a different area. No explosion, but a boulder smashed it before the white smoke from its summoning had even fully dissipated. Getting frustrated, Naruto was about to try again, when he caught sight of a bandit with a crossbow below him, aiming to apparently kill him mid-fall. Naruto smirked and performed his variation of the replacement jutsu, the _Saka-Kawarimi_. The bandit with the crossbow kindly finished Naruto's fall for him, while Naruto found himself in a unique spot where he had a full view of the entire stone maze.

Too bad he sucked at mazes in general, even the paper ones.

Locating the wagon where Roku-jiisan, Azula-chan, and all the guards were was easy enough, but he couldn't really see a way to get to them safely, nor a way to get them out of this mess either. Not much of a thinker, Naruto tried to track where Kasumi and Ryu were from his connection to them, only to realize that in the adrenaline-filled excitement of his free fall, he hadn't noticed that the fused chakra that had been used to establish the connection had run out and the connection faded with it.

Grumbling to himself, Naruto set his priorities and decided to regroup with the guards first and foremost. Kasumi-chan and Ryu would be fine, and they'd already decided earlier to meet up there anyway. Decision made, Naruto leapt out from the rock outcropping he'd landed and started sliding back down into the maze, surfing along the rock wall.

Just as he reached the top of the maze though, those damn spikes started shooting up again, but thankfully they seemed to be slower to reach him now that he was higher up. Jumping away from them, he aimed to run along the top of the maze, which was more like a series of broken paths than walls. He soon discovered, however, that they were just as trapped as the maze paths themselves.

One path/wall fell away completely the second he put a foot on it, another had spikes shooting from the ground trying to take out his ankles, while others had him dodging and running through flying shuriken and kunai projectiles. He did the best he could, running and jumping all over the place, but it was hard going and most of the time he had no clue what he was doing.

"Damnit!" he cursed as he leapt across another fall-away path, barely making it to the other side. "I don't have time for this! I've gotta get to the others! DAMNIT!"

He dodged one set of flying shuriken only to step right into a bunch of kunai headed right for his head. He cartwheeled out of the way, getting a few scratches to his armored jacket, but avoiding terminal injuries, though barely. When the flying shards of metal suddenly stopped, he took a moment to catch his breath, until he heard the telltale sound of crumbling rock. "DAMNIT!" he screamed and started running again.

He didn't make it far before his luck finally ran out and he wasn't fast enough to make it to the next ledge before it crumbled away. Thankfully, it was not a very steep drop to the ground, only about six or seven feet at the most. Unfortunately, the moment his butt landed on the ground, the earth spikes started all over again. "FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" he screamed and started using the tree-climbing to run along the sides of the walls and this time they stuck and didn't turn to mud. The spikes however still shot out, but at least they were slower in coming and not quite as long.

Then he came to his first intersection, and taking a gamble, he flipped and jumped clear across it to the flat ground past it and kept up his running speed. The spikes stopped coming, but when he looked back, he saw a giant boulder rolling down the narrow passage and it was gaining on him.

"I'M GONNA KICK THE ASS OF WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THIS STUPID MAZE! BELIEVE IT!!" Naruto screamed.

He saw another intersection coming up and fast. Seeing how close the rolling boulder was getting, he formed the cross-seal, didn't bother with calling out the jutsu name, focusing the energy more on running instead, and created one shadow clone for each passage that was coming up. They quickly ran ahead and took their designated path.

The first one was impaled by spikes before his second footstep down the path straight ahead. The second one ran another gauntlet of shuriken and kunai and was making good headway, until a wall suddenly closed in and crushed him before he could even cry out. The third one, which took the path to the left had no trouble whatsoever. But it went the completely opposite way that Naruto wanted to go.

Frowning, Naruto smiled as he saw the spikes up ahead slowly retracting, a full ten seconds after impaling his clone. Creating another half dozen clones, Naruto sent them running straight ahead. Five spikes impaled and destroyed the first clone, but the remaining clones jumped up and climbed on top of the spikes, another clone being destroyed by a total of ten spikes after the first five, and so on and so forth until the last clone came out in an area where no more spikes appeared. He threw himself back to activate a few more spikes for the Boss.

Naruto grinned and reached the upraised spikes just as they were beginning to lower. And they just didn't have the same damage potential if they weren't fully extending from the ground all at once. Swinging between the spikes and climbing over them, Naruto reached the other side some three seconds ahead of the giant boulder slamming into the raised spiked, crashing into them and breaking them apart. Naruto looked back nervously as he cleared the spiked path, watching as the boulder came crashing through, rolling steadily closer.

It was slowing down, but not enough that it wouldn't break through entirely from what Naruto was seeing. Naruto got ready to jump up and over the boulder, if he could, because the only place to run was straight on, and he knew that he couldn't outrun this thing for very much longer. Thankfully though, just as it reached the last few raised spikes, something shifted (like maybe more spikes were coming up to replace the broken ones) and just as it reached the last set, the boulder lost practically all its momentum and bounced gently against the rock death trap before rolling back some.

When he was sure it wouldn't be crushing him any time soon, Naruto took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. Much calmer now, he turned and started walking down the path that should lead him to where his friends were going, and where he needed to be.

Then the ground fell away and he was cast into the darkness of the earth.

_Forgotten Valley_

_Stone Maze_

_Kasumi_

Kasumi was running wildly through the maze. Like the others, she was sure, she was trying to head back to where they had left the wagon and the soldiers to protect their clients. She'd felt it the moment the connection snapped between her and the boys, but it was to be expected honestly. They had not had time to properly test it, to find out all its weaknesses, its limitations. She resolved to correct that when they got out of this mess.

The chestnut-haired kunoichi smirked to herself as she flashed through the stone maze. Two months ago, given this situation, she would be saying that she was going to die and her only option was to make sure the mission was still able to be completed before being killed. A month and a half ago, having graduated the Ninja Academy, but not yet meeting her teammates, she would have come to the same conclusion, but with less fear and more resolution. Now?

She laughed to herself as she smoothly ducked under some kunai and shuriken. Now, she was a friend of Uzumaki Naruto, and had spent over a month getting to know him, trained beside him, and helped him grow as he in turn helped her grow. She knew the dangers, she knew that they faced a lot of unknowns here in this situation, but she also knew one thing above all others. Even in the face of death and certain destruction, Naruto just grins and gets right back up, ready for more.

Could she, the heir to the Mugen Tenshin Clan, a noble ninja clan of Konoha, do any less?

To quote some of her former classmates at the Academy; PUH-Lease!

The traps, however effective, were all rather basic too. At least from her perspective. Although given their abundance, it certainly made up for the lack in originality. The spikes were a bit tough at first, and to most it would seem they instantly react, but there was a delay. Not much of one, less than a few seconds certainly, but it's still there and she'd been training so that she had near instant reflexes from the time she could stand and walk.

The ground spikes were easy, but the wall and 'ceiling' spikes on the other hand came out faster than she could get past them. Which happened every time she tried to climb to the top of the maze. And it started at the top, closing off the option of getting out, and then made its way down, making it difficult to keep trying for long. She found it easier to just go through the maze avoiding the traps there than pushing her luck in beating the one that kept her from cheating, so to speak.

She was making good headway towards the wagon and the soldiers position, when she entered a wide and surprisingly open area of the maze. She slid to a halt the moment she was past the walls of the maze and pulled out a kunai and a fist full of senbon. Standing opposite her, at the only other entrance/exit of the area, was a short, lithe man dressed all in brown with unwashed drooping brown hair and an ugly look on his face. She glared at him, glancing all around them, looking for the others that would be there, hidden.

"Oh, not to worry, kunoichi-san," the man said in a sly, mocking tone, "We're all alone here. I don't like to share, ne. And as feisty as I'm sure you are, ne," he flashed through two hand-seals in the blink of an eye before slamming one hand into the wall behind him. Instantly, the passage behind her closed, sealed off by the rock walls closing in, and then raising a good four feet, topping off in barbed spikes. The passage behind him also closed, but unlike the one behind her, there was a door in the wall.

"Ne, I don't think I would be needing much help in dealing with you anyway, ne," he mocked.

She glared her hazel eyes in annoyed anger at him, settling into her stance. She wouldn't bother saying one word to this trash. No, he was worse than trash. And while he was clearly well-versed in Doton jutsu, it was just as clear that he was no ninja.

"Aw, nothing to say, kunoichi-san, ne?" Kai settled his stance and brought his hands together.

Her only response was to glare further and wait for him to make the first move. Normally she would have already attacked by now, but with this maze's penchant for traps, and given her opponent, she decided to change her own tactics a little.

"Heh," Kai chuckled and flashed through a half dozen hand seals, finishing with the snake seal, and pointed with both hands, right at her. "_Doton: Surorokku_ (Earth Release: Rock Throw)!"

From around him, beside him, below him and behind him, melon-sized stones separated themselves from the ground, earth, and walls around them, and then began to launch themselves at Kasumi. She tracked each stone as it flew through the air, right on target, but also kept an eye on her opponent too. She waited until the first of the stones were an arms-length away and was half a second from hitting her before finally ducking back out of the way.

As expected, the moment she moved, he started another jutsu, but she was already moving before he was even halfway through. Ducking and weaving around the falling rocks, she threw her fist full of senbon at him, but saved her chakra for later rather than create a dozen more each.

Kai had seen what this girl could do with those needles, and knew he did not want to get hit by even a passing glance. He abandoned his first jutsu and couldn't help being grateful that Bakato had made him train in his one defensive technique so much that he only needed one hand seal for it instead of the three that were normally used for it.

"_Doton: __Doryūheki _(Earth Release: Earth Style Wall)!" he kicked up some dust as he shouted and instantly there was a solid, though only four-inch thick, barrier made from the ground. The needles were stopped, but Kai couldn't help but notice all of them were more than halfway through before they ultimately halted. He gulped nervously and backed slowly away from his defense and let it fall back into the ground.

Only to see Kasumi just a few feet in front of him and running with a kunai in one hand and the other balled in a strong fist.

"Yikes!" he squeaked and started running from her. Then he squealed again when there was a sharp pain in his butt and his right leg fell asleep on him. He looked back and saw a senbon sticking out of his right butt cheek.

_Pathetic,_ Kasumi thought to herself. One or two Doton techniques and this bandit thought he was as worthy and powerful as any legendary ninja in the bingo book. Maybe this, if he ever got out of prison, would teach him a lesson about things like that.

Kai, on the other hand, was thinking that he would be the one teaching her the lesson. The reason for his confidence was soon revealed as he ran, he was also forming hand seals, hiding it behind his body as he ran hunched over. Right as he reached the wall of the maze, he spun around and finished the technique with a shout.

"_Doton: Doryūsō _(Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears)!"

Kasumi's eyes went wide as she skidded to a halt a meter in front of the bandit. She didn't have time to be messing around however, as the same spikes that had thus far been part of the maze erupted all around them, but each one aimed only for the Konoha ninja. Putting her conditioning training to good use, Kasumi was leaping and jumping and flipping all over the place, narrowly avoiding being impaled by sharp stones shooting up out of the ground.

Thankfully, they stopped when she got close to the distant wall, opposite to where her opponent was pressed up against. She frowned as this information filtered its way through her brain. If this was just a raw technique, and not attached to any of the preset traps placed throughout this stone maze, then that meant the origin point was him. And given the range she had just witnessed, coupled with the fact that he didn't look particularly winded, all he would have to do is stand in the exact center of this area and he could turn the whole place into a porcupine nest. Save for wherever he was standing.

Kasumi frowned.

She was at a distinct disadvantage here, as there was no way she could get close enough now without being struck by those rising spears, and her long range attacks were negated by his Doryūheki. What's worse, the only other long range attacks she had were the few water jutsu her brother had taught her, and water was weak against earth. Though she had seen and knew that there were water jutsu that could best the inherent weakness of its nature, she did not know them and she did not know how to further empower her own jutsu to overcome it either.

The old her would be looking for ways out, as every logical bone in her body was screaming for her to retreat and save herself. The her that was friends with Naruto however, was looking for a way to win. She decided to do what Naruto would do and see where that got her.

"_Tsuchi Bunshin no jutsu_!" she flashed through the hand seals and two mud piles rose up and formed solid clones on either sides of her, gaining flesh-tones and her identical coloring as the jutsu completed.

They did not exchange words, just a single glance with the original and then all three ran straight for their target as fast as they possibly could. Given that Kasumi was still the fastest of the three genin on Team One that was _very_ fast.

Kai was stunned for a moment.

First, the bitch doesn't even say anything to him, barely even acknowledging him as a real threat, and on top of that she threw a needle in his butt! He fumed about that for a second, before deciding that he would have to wait to play around with her. Number one order of business was to neutralize her, and that meant knocking the bitch out. So what if she got banged up in the process? Not like he wasn't planning to do worse to her when he finally got his hands on her.

"_Doton: Doryūsō_!" he used the technique once more, creating the spikes only in the straight path she was using. The last thing he saw before she was hit by the spikes was that bitchy smirk of hers. The same one that told him she thought he was pathetic and not worth her time.

He hated that look.

He let the jutsu run its course, but was surprised when he didn't hear the customary scream of someone being impaled to death by stone spikes. He lowered the spikes and was shocked when he saw that the girl, and her clones, had completely disappeared. There wasn't even any mud left over from the clones.

That did not make any sense to Kai, so he started looking around, stepping away from the wall that he'd put his back to, but no matter which direction he looked, even up and down, the girl was no where to be seen.

Until he was over three meters away from the wall, and he felt a pair of hands grab both his ankles. Eyes wide, he screamed and looked down. Only to find the Earth clones holding his legs and smirking up at him. They then pulled him rapidly down into the ground.

"_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu._" the real Kasumi pronounced as she stepped around from where she had been positioned behind the bandit.

"Wha-whu-what?! But how, ne?" Kai shouted up at her, only his head above the ground, the rest of him completely immobilized, which meant no hand seals, which meant no escaping.

"The only thing I will bother saying to trash like you," she coldly replied, "is that you are no ninja. You don't even know what it means to be a ninja. No matter how many ninjutsu you teach yourself, you will never be a true ninja."

That said, she turned and walked towards the door he had been guarding, ready to resume her path back to the others and those she was assigned to protect.

"Ne!" he called.

When she briefly looked back at him over her shoulder, he told her, "I wouldn't go that way if I were you, ne!" She scoffed and continued on, ignoring him.

The door opened easily enough and she could see the path through the maze down a small, enclosed tunnel fashioned into the wall itself. Seeing no signs of a trap, and the earth user trapped behind her with no way to get out, she confidently walked down the tunnel towards the lighted path. About halfway down the tunnel, the trap was sprung by a simple depression of earth in the floor. The lethal spikes snapped out faster than anyone could react to, faster than she could've anyway.

"AAAHHHHH!!" her scream echoed throughout the stone maze.

"I tried to warn her, ne," Kai chuckled darkly to himself.

_Forgotten Valley_

_Stone Maze_

_Hayato_

"Kasumi!" Hayato shouted as he heard the scream. He tried to find where it came from, but ever since that damn trap-builder activated this damn stone maze trap, he'd been stuck running around in circles.

While his secondary element did happen to be the earth element, Hayato was unfortunately not quite as trained up in Doton jutsu as he was with his primary element and Raiton jutsu. Most unfortunate was that he had yet to fully master the _Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu _(Earth Release: Hidden Among the Rocks technique), a technique that would literally allow him to walk through the walls of this maze.

First thing, when he got himself and his team back to Konoha, resume his own training, and double it. Training them up was fine, but he'd been neglecting teaching himself new things while he taught them as much as they could handle. That was now coming back to bite him on the ass.

A sound caught the jounin's attention and he quickly dove to the side, just in time to avoid being crushed by a falling rock. Sometime in the half hour he'd been running around the maze, he found himself inside a cavern portion of said maze and had since been working on getting himself out of it. Unfortunately, despite earth's typical weakness to lightning, when building earth defenses, more was usually better, and even his strongest techniques could only blast away so much rock and earth without a lot more power behind them. Like real lightning for starters.

"Ah, ah, ah," a voice echoed throughout the dark cavern, "Shouldn't let you mind wander, Jounin-san! It might get you killed."

"..." Hayato had tried multiple times to track the source of the voice that had been tormenting him, but still no luck so far. The Bandit Leader had hidden himself well. "I don't suppose there is a reason you've chosen to face me behind a whole lot of traps. And judging by said traps, I would wager a guess that you originate from Iwa, or at least your knowledge of ninjutsu and trap making do."

Echoing silence was his only answer.

"I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to start a conversation," Hayato called as he resumed walking through the dark cave, though ten times more alert than he'd already been.

"And what makes you think I'm at all interested in what a Konoha ninja has to say to me?" the voice echoed back.

"Hey, you started it," Hayato smirked. Maybe Naruto and Ryu were starting to have a bad influence on him? Nah!

"What's your name anyway?" Hayato asked when he got no immediate response.

"I don't suppose you're one of those silly warrior types that like to know the name of you enemy before you kill them, or are killed by them, are you?" the bandit's voice echoed from every direction in the dark cavern.

"Not particularly," Hayato admitted. "Just curious is all. Particularly since you may be the first ever non-ninja placed in a bingo book. I like knowing the names of interesting people like that."

"Funny, you're a funny man, Jounin-san," he called back.

"OK, I'll start, though I imagine you might already know who I am. My name is Hayato, Kanzaki Hayato. Now which of the many famous bandits with rewards on their heads might I have the pleasure of being trapped by today?" Hayato mockingly called out.

"..." for a time Hayato thought he wouldn't answer, but finally there was a soft, echoed reply. "Bakato. Just Bakato, before you ask."

"No family name?" Hayato gingerly asked, even as he began looking for the nearest way out, but the walls were all covered in shadowed darkness, making it nearly impossible for him to see.

"I abandoned my family name along with..." he stopped talking for a second and then resumed, "I have a new family now. And it is them that I am trying to protect here."

"Protect? By attacking and robbing and even killing travelers?" he incredulously shouted.

"A family's gotta eat," was the amused reply. "By the way, you're only going deeper into the cave. I thought you should know."

"Oh really? And why's that?" Hayato shouted at the darkness.

"..." Bakato said nothing until Hayato felt a tremor run through the ground and up his legs. Then the echoing shout of, "_Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi _(Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction)!"

"Shit!" Hayato cursed and pulled out **_Sutamasurao_** and activated it in a flash. He whispered something under his breath, holding the blue-lightning sword with both hands before him.

As the roof and rock walls began to cave in, as the jutsu implied, it was a trap technique where if a single stone is dislodged from the constructed cave, it fell in on itself, trapping and killing everyone inside of it. It was a popular trap and technique for Iwanin during the war between Konoha and Iwa.

Just as the first rocks began to fall and were about to crush him, the energy from the blue chakra blade seemed to spread and become ten times as bigger, before wrapping itself around Hayato, making _him_ glow with lightning-blue energy, and the energy blade itself was now a pure white, and over seven feet in length from hilt to tip.

"_Kinjutsu: Plasma Field_ (Forbidden Technique: Plasma Field)," Hayato's voice was somewhat distorted. Like he was trying to whisper, but he was filled with so much power that it came out as a deafening shout.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

Bakato looked down at the pile of rubble with a look of acknowledgment. He didn't like to kill, but he knew when it was necessary. And it would be easy enough to retrieve the body and whatever special weapons or artifacts the jounin might have been carrying. As the dust settled, he looked down over a ledge that had been positioned right above the rock cavern. He was about to turn away and call his men in to start digging so they could collect the jounin's weapons, when he saw something odd.

He realized what it was about two seconds before it revealed itself anyway. It started as a soft blue glow, but soon turned into a shining light coming from the rubble of the trap he'd just thrown on the Konoha jounin. Seconds later, the rocks exploded outward with violent force, revealing an all-powerful looking version of the Konohanin. He was covered in an electric blue aura that spoke of unbeatable power and that energy sword of his was taller than any man alive and looked powerful enough that it could slice through a mountain a league away.

"Damnit! Archers!" Bakato shouted the orders. "FIRE!"

Hayato looked up and with a two-handed grip on his weapon, he swung the pure white beam sword in a tight circle around him and whisper/shouted, "_San-Engetsu._"

The walls and ledges all around them exploded as the energy was unleashed in an unstoppable torrent. Everything was chaos, loud noise, motion, heat, light, no one could make sense of anything until it all stopped and the dust began to settle in the air.

When Bakato came too, maybe a minute after the jounin had wiped out over half his men with a single attack, he found himself on a large pile of sand, all that was left of the strong stone ridge he'd been standing on minutes before. Looking around, he briefly thought he was in a desert somewhere instead of the mountains. Amazingly enough, aside from some bruising and some cuts here and there, he was largely uninjured from the attack, which was surprising given the level of damage present.

Looking up at the jounin, he saw as the man slowly stopped glowing and his energy weapon reverted to its original, lightning-blue appearance. Then he distinctly heard the man say to himself, "Damn, I really wanted to avoid using that for a while longer. It always take a lot out of me."

'_Interesting,_' Bakato thought to himself. Looking around though, he realized whatever traps he'd had in the area were long gone by now, and even if they weren't there was no telling how reliable they may or may not be. He planned on waiting until the Konohanin left and then making his way back to the hideout and getting reinforcements, but that wasn't going to happen.

"You shouldn't get up yet, Bakato," he called without even looking over at the Bandit Leader. "You're the only one still conscious by the way. And yes, I have that much control over an attack like that. Breaking up the electrical bonds between molecules and turning solids into sand is even easier than controlling who remains conscious after that attack."

"You'll notice, however, that you can no longer move," Hayato explained, walking over to the prone man, "The paralyzation will last for two days before wearing out. And no, it's not a matter of mind over matter or chakra control. Your nervous system is overloaded, not to the point where it can no longer function or handle the energy traveling through it, quite the opposite in fact. Your nerves are transmitting faster than you brain or body can keep up with. So while everything still works, you can't control it until it wears off."

Deactivating his weapon and putting it away, Hayato waved and said as he headed back towards the clients, "I'll be sure to send the Fire Lord's army in to help you out before you and your men die of thirst or starvation. It gets chilly up in these mountains, so have a good night!"

Bakato, tried as he might, couldn't even raise a finger to show his feelings to the man.

(Stop "Mountain Fight")

_Forgotten Valley_

_Stone Maze_

_Ryu_

Ryu slowed to a trot, taking a minute to catch his breath, as no more traps were shooting out at him and bandits weren't trying to ambush him. Well, at least not at that very minute. He'd been stuck running through this gauntlet for the past half hour, and just his luck that his path seemed to have the most twists and turns and traps down it. He couldn't even climb the walls without weapons shooting out at him and the walls trying to crush him every time he tried.

Not that he could say that fairly, as he had no clue what similar obstacles the others were facing, but this was arguably worse than Hayato-sensei's most sadistic training regimen. He'd had to pull off some killer moves just to get past a lot of the traps, and being attacked around every corner wasn't exactly fun either. Not only did he have to knock out all the bandits while avoiding being killed by the various traps around them, but he had to make it so they couldn't get back up and attack him again later.

About fifteen minutes ago he'd heard Kasumi's scream and had been working towards finding her more than anything else, but there had been no follow-up screams. About ten minutes after that, there was a large cloud of smoke over one corner of the maze, followed by a brilliant flash of light. Hoping that it was his Jounin Sensei rather than some super trap these bandits had set off, Ryu did his best to head in that direction. As much as the maze would let him anyway.

Another fifteen minutes of running, avoiding traps and the occasional bandit beat down, and Ryu finally came to an open area of the maze. It wasn't anything like a boxed in canyon or trap, rather it was more like there were no walls between the section of the maze he'd been in and the next one straight in front of him. Just past the wall in front of him, on a raised platform, he could see the soldier guards under siege by hordes of bandits. Resolving to get to them and help as quickly as he could, he started to charge forward. Instinct made him stop and jump back, right before a very familiar-looking club smashed apart the spot where he'd just been standing.

Looking up, Ryu frowned upon seeing Tokumetsu towering above him. How that brute managed to sneak up on him in such an open space, he couldn't begin to guess, but he also didn't like his chances in a one-on-one fight with the strongman.

"Heh," Tokumetsu scoffed, seeing the black-clad ninja dodge his strike. "Looks like I got the scrawny one. I was hoping to at least get that loudmouthed brat, if only so I could be the one to shut him up. I guess I'll just have to settle for you then, short-stuff."

Ryu growled, getting to his feet and pulling out his kunai. "Who are you calling short-stuff, fatso?" he mocked, then charged in, fully intending on kicking the giant's butt.

Tick marks appeared on Tokumetsu's head when he heard what Ryu called him. He didn't even bother shifting his stance when he picked up the club with one hand and in a flash of motion that Ryu couldn't even begin to keep up with, slammed the genin into the wall behind him, leaving an inch deep crater in it just from the sheer force of the blow.

"I'm not fat," Tokumetsu whispered in a dangerous tone, "I'M JUST BIG-BONED!!"

"Oh shit!" Ryu cursed and did a quick kawarimi with a rock somewhere behind the mad giant.

The stone was so much sand in the air after being hit by Tokumetsu, providing Ryu with enough cover that he could find himself a better hiding place. Hey, he may be from a clan of battle-crazed psychos, but a ninja knows when to fight and when to hide.

He ran for the platform where the guards were fighting, making sure to stay behind as many large rocks as he could for cover, but unfortunately in the end it made no difference. Tokumetsu seemingly came out of nowhere and swung his club at the back of his head. Luckily, Ryu had seen the shadow and knew enough to roll forward while ducking his head, narrowly avoiding having said head taken off.

"How the hell?!" Ryu cried out. "I don't have time for this!"

"Well that's just too damn bad, isn't it?" Tokumetsu growled at him and swung his club again.

"GAH!" Ryu wasn't fast enough this time and the weapon hit him dead center, sending him flying into the rock wall and then crashing to the ground. He'd been hit full force by Gouken-sensei before in training, but that was _nothing_ compared to this!

What was this guy?

"Aw, don't pass out on me now, short-stuff!" Tokumetsu picked the genin up and threw him into the wall, cracks forming around his body just from the force of the giant's strength. "We're just getting started!"

What followed was arguably the most painful time in Ryu's entire life. Except he still remembered his uncle's training sessions and then the clan's examinations every year on his birthday. Not to mention Hayato-sensei's team training. So while after a few minutes he couldn't even get up on his hands and knees, he kept his pride intact and kept trying to get up anyway.

"Heh, you've definitely got spunk kid," Tokumetsu grumbled, 'helping' Ryu to stand on his feet. "I HATE SPUNK!" he then used his spiked club like a golf club and Ryu as the golf ball and sent the youth flying through the air _over_ the walls of the stone maze.

When he finally landed, it was only a few meters from the raised platform, but when he crashed into the ground, there was a sickening thud and cracking noise. He didn't get up this time. Then again, he was also unconscious, so there wasn't much he could do about it anyway.

Moments later, Tokumetsu appeared standing over the broken genin. He looked about and nodded to himself, satisfied. Then he said, "That should be enough. The others should have finished by now, and it's time I finished off those pitiful guards."

He then raised his spiked club over his head, and then slammed it full force into a very odd rock formation in the wall to his right. The minute after he pulled his club from the wall, a low rumbling filled the earth and the cause was soon obvious as all of the walls and hidden paths of the maze began sinking back into the earth, until there was only the flat, broken plain of the Forgotten Valley.

"Hey!" a voice called in outrage, "What's the big idea, ne? I thought we weren't going to drop the trap until we got all of them? Still got those soldiers to deal with, don't we, ne?"

"Ah, shut up, Kai-baka!" Tokumetsu growled at the annoying Bandit Leader. "I was getting tired of running through all those secret passages just keeping up with this gaki! I can take care of the soldiers easy enough, and I figured the rest of you were done by now."

"Ne, got that right, ne," Kai laughed, showing off his burden. Namely a wounded and cut Kasumi, who was unconscious but still tied and gagged just to be on the safe side. Her black armor was wholly intact, but there were open cuts and tears in the arms and legs and a couple of bleeding cuts on her cheeks.

"Pervert," Tokumetsu grumbled, shaking his head.

"Takes one to know one, ne," Kai shot back.

"Why you!" the giant raised his club in threat.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" a new voice spoke.

Both Bandit Leaders spun on the spot and stared wide-eyed at a bruised and dust-covered Hayato standing there, energy sword active and pointed right at them. "Step away from the genin."

Tokumetsu actually considered for a brief moment on just smashing the prone boy, and Kai considered pulling out a knife to use against the girl in his arms. Hayato saw that and shifted his stance accordingly.

"Keep in mind that I outran you big boy, and your boss is now paralyzed amongst the rubble of his own trap. This sword does not miss. Drop her and get away from them both."

"Well, if you insist, ne," Kai shrugged, and then tossed the girl right at Hayato and both he and Tokumetsu dashed away.

"Damnit!" Hayato cursed, catching Kasumi and laying her next to Ryu before running after the two of them. He did at least release the girls binds and make sure she was OK, but he was no medic, and he had to make sure those two didn't get away with this.

(Play "Kyuubi no Kitsune")

_Forgotten Valley_

"Uoohhh..." Naruto groaned as he slowly dug himself out of the pit he'd fallen into. He'd been hanging onto the walls, inches from being impaled on a bunch of non-moving spikes at the bottom of the pit for quite a while when the whole thing suddenly caved in on itself and he found himself jumping and crawling his way back to the surface until he finally had to start digging to make progress.

Now, at last, he was in the open air and just one final rock in his way. A little heave-ho and he was free. Covered from head to toe in dirt and bruised and battered, but alive and free. Taking a moment to appreciate this fact, he stretched and took some time to catch his breath. A minute later, he was ready for action and started looking around to take in the situation.

His eyes froze, along with the rest of him, when he caught sight of his teammates, both looking quite beaten and laying very still in the dirt. He couldn't do anything when he saw that, he could barely breathe, but despite how it feels at times, the world does not stop when you experience a shock.

"AAAHHHHH!" he heard a girl's scream, and despite his mind's attempts at retreating into itself, he automatically turned towards the source and saw a nightmare come to life.

A few dozen meters away from his position, the wagon where all the soldiers and Roku-jiisan and Azula-chan were supposed to be, was overturned and smashed to pieces. Almost all of the soldiers themselves were laid out on the ground, either unconscious or...

Cowering behind the remains of the wagon was Azula-chan, who was the one that screamed, and protecting her were the two sergeants, Ryo and Heero, and her grandfather. He was just standing there over her, between the bandits and his granddaughter, and that seemed to be enough because amazingly they were leaving him alone. The soldiers took out the rest, but the biggest problems, literally, were the two Bandit Leaders.

Tokumetsu and Kai were fighting like a pair of mad dogs, the giant swinging his club with his inhuman strength, and the loudmouthed Kai throwing earth jutsu in at every opportunity. Thankfully though, also fighting them was Hayato-sensei, and while he looked worse for wear himself, he was holding the two of them back.

Unfortunately, either because he'd been weakened, or the giant had somehow enhanced his club, Hayato could not slice through Tokumetsu's spiked club with his chakra sword, instead they either clashed as any normal weapons would, or the sword just passed through the club giving a shock to the wielder, which he usually responded to with a, "Heh, tingles."

Naruto was trying to process all of this at once, and was torn between going to his teammates or trying to help his Jounin Sensei and the soldiers. Before he could make the decision though, one of the other bandits attacking noticed him and ran straight at the confused looking genin. Naruto didn't even see him before he was tackled to the ground and punched a few times. It did knock some sense into the blond's head and after another punch he decided enough was enough and started punching back.

The bandit went down after three solid hits to the face and after Naruto got to his feet, he ran straight for the people he was hired to protect. Hayato-sensei could handle himself well enough, but it was clear that Roku-jiisan and the others needed some help.

Naruto formed a few shadow clones and bum rushed the few remaining bandits, knocking them to the ground with a couple of sweeping kicks, and then knocking them out with a few punches and face kicks. There were still a few more enemies between him and the others though, so he kept it up.

Tokumetsu saw this out of the corner of his eye while defending against Hayato. Seeing the tide turn, he made a tactical decision and threw Hayato off him with a shove and a hard kick to the ribs. Then he called out, "Kai! Hold him for a minute! I've got to take care of some trash!"

"Ne?!" the earth-jutsu user exclaimed. Then he was too busy throwing rocks and spikes at the jounin to respond any further.

Tokumetsu, ran straight through his men and aimed right for the two remaining soldiers.

"Look out!" Roku warned, pointing at the onrushing giant.

They both saw him, but despite their swords and what capabilities they had, there was little they could do to stop him. And as fast as both of them were, Ryo and Heero were wearing full armor and had been fighting for hours now. They couldn't even begin to dodge when Tokumetsu struck them each with a hard swing from his weapon. When they finally landed amidst their men, they were clearly unconscious or... or maybe dead. Azula, seeing this, chose that moment to faint dead away.

"NO!" Naruto screamed and threw himself at the giant. Himself and a half dozen clones.

"Pest!" the giant swatted them all away, the clones disappearing in poofs of smoke, and Naruto landing painfully on the ground.

"Damnit!" the blond hissed, trying to get back to his feet, but his body just wouldn't cooperate.

"Naruto!" Hayato shouted upon seeing his genin attacked.

Naruto looked up, but that was all he could do. The helplessness pounded at him, his frustration and anger at his own weakness increased with each breath, but there really wasn't anything he could do.

Hayato saw the situation as it was, and couldn't believe what had become of such a simple C-Rank mission. But how could he have known there would be a literal army of bandits here waiting for them? How could they have known their opponents would be so powerful? So many unknowns, and all because one old man didn't want to go through slow traffic on his way home. A man that was even now just standing there looking at all of them, as though waiting for something to change the situation.

Well if that's what he wanted, that's what Hayato would give him.

"Hyeeaaahhhh!" Hayato screamed as he pushed himself beyond what limits he'd placed there before the fight even started. _Sutamasurao_ briefly pulsed and the energy blade increased to one hundred percent. He charged the bandits and moved even faster than before.

What was cut was severed and cauterized, never to be reattached. What was pierced was burned away into vapor. And what was shocked was electrocuted and burned beyond recognition. The jounin moved from bandit to bandit, protecting his clients and his genin from any further attacks. Until only two others remained on the field.

Kai was hiding, either from cowardice or intelligence as there were few that would face the wrath of an enraged jounin. Especially a Konohanin protecting people.

Tokumetsu was one of the few that would do something like that. But he was also very quick for someone of his size. So when Hayato had cut down the last of his men, the giant crept up behind him, and using that surprising speed of his, he slammed his club with full force down onto the middle of the jounin's back.

"No!" Naruto cried, struggling to move as he was, saw it all, but there was nothing he could have done.

Being the jounin that he was, Hayato took the blow, but did not go down. He hadn't even cried out. He did get out of the way though, in case there was a second blow coming. Turning, he faced the giant once more as blood began to pool in his mouth, some of it dribbling out as he stood there. The chakra sword flickered a couple of times, but remained fully active.

"Hayato-sensei!" Naruto shouted, getting to his knees. Another minute and he could stand, then he could help his Jounin Sensei, help the man that had trained him and helped him in becoming a ninja.

Then, in the space of a single second, the chakra sword went out completely and blood began pouring from Hayato's mouth, and the gaping wound in his abdomen that came from the stone spike impaled there. Standing some meters behind Hayato, Kai started laughing, his hands still in the snake seal from using his jutsu. The spike retreated and the blood began to flow.

Hayato looked down and stared, in shock and unable to fully process what had just happened. Almost in slow motion, he fell to his knees, and then collapsed fully to the ground. His eyes searched, and finally locked onto Naruto's.

"Naruto," he croaked, blood pouring from his mouth, "Run..." His eyes glazed over and he fell over completely.

"Heh, hahahahahahahaahaaHA!" Kai laughed. "Ne, that was the best fight I've had in a long time. And now with Bakato-dono paralyzed for a few days, I got myself two hot looking pieces of jailbait to spend my time with. And on top of that, we got ourselves some prime ransom material in that scared old man over there."

Tokumetsu just shook his head and rolled his eyes. He put his spiked club on his shoulder, but didn't say anything else. Kai would never change, he was thinking. Then a wave of the most malevolent chakra any of them had ever felt before in their entire lives swept through them and then they were both thinking the same thing; what the hell was that?

The answer soon became obvious when it repeated and a column of steam began to rise from one of the bodies. Namely, Naruto's body.

He was still crouched on his knees, but his fists were clenched tight, and what bruising and other wounds he had were fading while those still standing stared at him. A low grumbling growl came from the boy, that was looking less and less like a boy by the second.

"You..." Naruto growled, slowly getting to his feet. "You... _monsters_!"

The steam suddenly exploded away from him and was replaced by an unmistakable _red chakra_ aura. The violent and undoubtedly evil chakra erupted from the genin's body like lava from a volcano, spreading around him and then shooting into the sky in a spiral around his body. At the height, they all briefly thought they saw a face form itself out of the red chakra, but then dismissed it, thinking they were seeing things. They hadn't seen anything yet.

Finally the chakra settled down, more or less, into a body-hugging aura of menacing red. The chakra, however, was not the only thing that had changed about Naruto in all this. All of his wounds had been healed, like he'd never been injured in the first place. But also his basic appearance was much different from before. His fingernails had grown into sharp claws, his muscles tightened, and the birthmarks around his cheeks were somehow deeper than before, like something was inside his face trying to push its way out. The most prominent of the changes, however, was his eyes. Instead of his normal cerulean blue eyes, a pair of slitted animal pupils the color of blood stared out from his eyes.

Tokumetsu and Kai were stunned and too shocked to really react, but there wasn't anything they could really do about what was going to happen anyway.

"Grr," the beast that Naruto had become growled at them. In the next instant, he was running straight for them on all fours, and moving faster than Hayato had at full speed.

"What the!" Tokumetsu screamed and reacted on instinct, which was to smash the living hell out of whatever scared him. In this case, that was Naruto.

Naruto took the blow to the side of the head and was sent skidding all the way to the ground in front of Roku, who was staring wide-eyed with open shock at the display. Naruto got up immediately after coming to a halt, shook his head, and glared with very real Killing Intent at the strong giant.

Tokumetsu gulped and then looked up at his club. The spike on the side that had hit Naruto was bent inwards, and there was a crack running up and down the length of the weapon. A weapon that he spent quite a lot of time using to break rocks apart and it never got a scratch. One hit to the side of this enraged ninja's head and he gets up without a problem and the club is nearly split in half.

Before he even had time to second guess himself, Naruto was on the move again, and the Bandit Leader had to give all his attention to the threat. He tried to hit the blazing red ninja, but he was too fast and Tokumetsu kept missing. Finally, he called out for assistance.

"KAI!" he screamed. "HELP ME OUT ALREADY!"

"Ne?!" the coward exclaimed, but was already preparing several rock throws.

They all missed of course. Naruto wasn't staying still long enough for Kai to target him. He took another run straight for Tokumetsu, who saw it and made sure to time it just right, swinging his club with his full weight behind it this time. Naruto was likewise prepared.

The weapon came to an abrupt halt in its owner's hands, and when he looked, his eyes went so wide they almost rolled out of their sockets. Naruto had _caught_ the club with an open palm and had grabbed onto it so tight that there were grooves in it from his fingers and claws. With an ease that served to further stun the Bandit Leader, the blond genin yanked the weapon out of his hand, snapped it over his knee, and then threw both pieces over his shoulder.

Tokumetsu gulped, and then threw up as he passed out, as Naruto chose that precise moment to slam his red-chakra-infused fist into the big man's gut. If he'd wanted to, he could have felt the man's spine with his knuckles.

Leaving the giant to fall to the ground on his own, Naruto sped away and towards Kai. The earth user screamed and tried to get away, but Naruto easily caught up to him and punched him so hard that half his teeth fell out and the bandit flew so hard and so fast that his head actually cracked and went through a stone boulder somewhere far behind him. A trickle of blood could be seen pooling out from the hole in the rock.

After a long moment, when it became clear that neither of the bandits were getting back up, Naruto just stood there, panting and glowing with red chakra. Then, slowly, the red chakra began to fade, and his breathing calmed and came back under his control. Other than some sweat and dirt though, after a minute he was completely back to normal.

It would be a while before he learned that in response to that first chakra surge, both Kasumi and Ryu had woken up and witnessed the whole event.

(Stop "Kyuubi no Kitsune")

_Capitol of Fire Nation_

_Roku's Home_

_Two Days Later_

The rest of the mission had gone as most C-Rank missions are supposed to go, easily and without incident. Somehow, in a way Naruto could not begin to explain, Fire Sage Roku did _something_ that healed everyone's wounds and most importantly kept Hayato and the others from dying. Though they were still hurt, their mortal wounds were almost completely healed by the time they were done. Thankfully they got to the Fire Nation Outpost at the other end of the Mountain Pass before they day was through and got the rest of their wounds tended. The day after, Team One finished escorting their client to his home, and the soldiers followed along until they got to the city and went to give their reports to their superiors.

Hayato had spoken with the commander of the outpost before being confined to the infirmary and troops had already been sent out to arrest all the bandits that were in the area Hayato had told them about, but by the time they got to Roku's home word had reached them that the Fire Nation soldiers had not found anything beyond signs of the battle. No bandits, no traps, no wounded prisoners, not even bodies of the dead.

"How the heck is that even possible?!" Naruto screamed, outraged at the news.

"I have my suspicions," Hayato said, shifting slightly in his seat. While the hole in his stomach and damage to his back had been healed, he was still sore and even after two days, his chakra was still on the low side. When he'd been fighting those two, Kai and Tokumetsu, he'd been close to chakra exhaustion, the kind that puts you in a coma for several days. Ironically, thanks to getting skewered in the gut and then healed, he was much better off than if he hadn't gotten injured. Not 100 percent, but not totally exhausted either.

"And?" Ryu wanted to know.

"And if you think about it, you'll come to the same conclusions I have," the jounin smiled mysteriously.

"That there were far more bandits in hiding than we ever saw at any point during the conflict," Roku told the genin, bringing a tray of food and beverage with him. Azula trailed behind bearing her own load of snacks.

"How could that be?" Kasumi asked, accepting some tea.

"Yeah, there must've been over a hundred there as it was!" Naruto exclaimed.

Roku and Hayato both nodded, but remained silent.

"How many could there be?" Ryu finally asked.

"We may never know for sure," Roku answered. "But despite their losses from our encounter with them, their numbers will probably continue to grow. The desperate and desolate always manage to find good hiding places, and the desperate often turn to thievery out of necessity than anything else. For now, the mountain passes will be more heavily patrolled and a few more people will hire armed escorts, as I did. Overall though, business as usual as they say."

"That just doesn't seem right," Naruto pouted, crossing his arms moodily.

"No one can change the world overnight, though many have tried, Naruto," Roku laughed. "We all do our parts, and while what seems to be right and wrong can change with the perspective, so does it change with time and experience. For now though, you are my guests, and I invite you to spend the night. I will even forward the time expense to Konoha, as I feel I owe it to you all."

"Nonsense!" the genin all started to protest, but a motion from their sensei stopped them.

"Thank you, Roku-sama," Hayato bowed in his seat. "But as tempting as that offer is, we must be getting back to Konoha."

The younger ninja were about to say something, but didn't when they noticed something in their Jounin Sensei's posture and eyes that silenced them.

"You cannot seriously be considering going back to Konoha in your condition after only a day's rest, Hayato," Roku stated. "Only an arrogant fool would be thinking such a thing, and you are no fool."

"Nevertheless, we cannot accept you offer of hospitality at this time," Hayato said in return.

The Fire Sage stared at the Jounin Sensei for some time before saying clearly, "You're angry with me."

Hayato's silence was answer enough.

"I was offered greater protection, a safer route, and I could have insisted that Azula, despite her own insistence, go back with all the soldiers she brought with her, soldiers I might have been able to bring with us for our own army to combat that which we faced," he listed. "And still I chose to take so few on such a dangerous path, even after being warned and threatened, I forced us to continue when we could have gone back and gained greater numbers or gone a safer way. Did I miss anything?"

Hayato clenched his jaw, then forcefully relaxed it and took a deep breath. "Whatever you may or may not have done for me in the past is no excuse, nor pardon for what you do in the present."

"Of course not," Roku sat down. "And I would be insulted, and highly concerned, if you felt otherwise."

"..." Hayato opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself before speaking a word.

"Say what is on your mind, Hayato. As you should well know, I'm not one of those 'sensitive nobles' that get all on their nobility when insulted or slighted. And we are in private, so..." Roku said.

"What were you thinking?!" Hayato near-screamed at the old man.

Roku raised an eyebrow, crossed his hands in his lap and looked expectantly at the experienced ninja.

"When we first started out, the decisions made were understandable, and while not ideal, were the best of the available choices. But after we stopped at the Army Outpost? Where we were _offered_ more men, and an extra day or nights stay. And that was after we knew skilled trackers were targeting our group specifically. Then after our first encounter, we could have turned back. You said no, just soldier on! Since you've made it so clear that you want me to speak my mind, then I'll go right ahead with that, Fire Sage Roku! What in the hell were you thinking continuing with the mission with so many dangers involved?!"

A moment of tense silence, and Roku calmly asked, "The truth?"

"If you please," Hayato snapped.

"I wanted to see what they could do," he pointed at the three genin.

"What?" all the ninja present blurted out loud.

"I have taken notice of other remarkable people in the past," the old man explained. "Hayato, you for example, were from a family of merchants, and not very good ones. Your Jounin Sensei turned out to be a traitor, as well as another of your teammates. Yet I still chose to give you that weapon you're so fond of. I'm sure you've asked yourself why I would do such a thing."

"To answer that, let me first tell you that I also gave... gifts, such as that weapon, to a few other ninja whose names you might recognize. Sarutobi Hiruzen, Namikaze Minato, and... a woman named Kushina. Also, more as a favor to the man you know as the Third Hokage, I also gave three Summoning Scrolls to his students, the ninja known to the world as the Sannin."

"Whoa," Ryu's jaw dropped in amazement.

"You gave the Sannin the Toad, Slug, and Snake Summoning contracts?" Kasumi clarified. Roku nodded his head yes.

"I recognize the old man's name, but who were the other two? And who are these Sannin?" Naruto asked. Ryu and Kasumi palmed their faces in exasperation.

"That's something for another time I'm afraid, Naruto," Roku told him. "What we are currently discussing is the answer to your sensei's question. Why did I give him such a rare and powerful artifact? Because, quite simply, I saw something in you Hayato. Something that made me trust you and believe that you were worthy of the chance to earn such a gift. And quite obviously, you were."

"So that is why you came to Konoha in the first place," Hayato scoffed and turned his head. Turning back, he grumbled, "You heard that I took a genin team and came to check them out. All the reasons for Konoha, to meet with the Hokage and discuss matters of state, were they just a pretense? Lies?"

"Oh no, Hiruzen and I did indeed take the opportunity to discuss several very important matters, and since I was in the area, I took care of quite a bit. But I will admit that it was not by chance that I chose your team to be my escorts. And before you get too paranoid, as I know you tend to get sometimes," he stated firmly, "No, I did not hire those bandits to kidnap me. No, I did not arrange for Azula to arrive at the time that she did, and I can only imagine the sheer coincidence of it happening in the first place. And lastly, the reason why we did not turn back after being attacked, is that I had only seen a glimmer of what these three were truly capable of. Having seen them in true action, Naruto especially, I can say that I am most impressed."

"Oh really," Hayato growled.

"You are angry, and with just reason," Roku sighed. "Think of me what you will, Hayato-san. Yet consider that such trials are customary for a ninja to face. Just take a look at the Chuunin Exams. Public spectacles where soldiers put their lives and the lives of their teammates on the line on the chance that _one of them_ will be promoted? Considering that all you did was walk me home and discovered a threat that may have overcome us eventually had we not been made aware, and that no one was permanently injured in the end, it's not the worst that could've happened."

Hayato glared and crossed his arms, but he didn't argue any further.

"Also," Roku took a sip of his tea before continuing, "There's something else to consider. There is a certain hierarchical order to things in this world. Ninja trumps civilian, chuunin trumps genin, jounin trumps chuunin, and Kage trumps jounin. Well," the old man leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially to them, "Sage trumps Kage. And not just politically either, I'll have you know. Or did you think first aid was all that was needed to save everyone's lives?"

Hayato snorted and turned his head.

"All right fine," the jounin finally said. "Given the circumstances, no one could have predicted how things could have gotten so screwed up, and you're right, it all turned out OK in the end. But no more tests, old man." He glared to further emphasize his point.

Roku shrugged. "I wouldn't call it a test. I did not expect anything to happen at all, and I was content to watch you train your genin further afield until a greater challenge appeared. Now then, will you reconsider my offer of hospitality?"

_Road to Konoha from Capitol_

_Three Days Later_

They spent the night and the next day as Roku's guests in his home. Hayato took the time to teach his team the lessons he'd _meant_ to teach them from the start during this C-Rank mission, but with the way things turned out it became all but impossible. They left the Capitol that afternoon and made it to an Inn about a quarter of the way between there and Konoha before sunset. They did, however, camp outside, and only paid the Inn for the opportunity to bathe and eat come morning.

After another half day's travel, they were already more than halfway there by the time they stopped for lunch. They were making good enough time that Hayato planned they would be back in Konoha by nightfall. The difference between walking with a wagon, civilians and soldiers to leaping through the trees at top speed, stopping only for five minutes to rest or eat.

Hayato had noticed the growing tension between his "perfect team" ever since they stayed the night at Roku's home. It had been building steadily ever since with each passing hour.

He wasn't a hundred percent certain, but if he had to guess, Naruto was acting depressed and was trying his best to spare the other two from seeing it, while Kasumi and Ryu saw it clearly enough and were chomping at the bit to interrogate their teammate about what had happened, but were holding back because they didn't want him to be embarrassed and even more depressed.

The whole reason he chose when and where to eat lunch had nothing to do with how hungry they were or their position or anything else like that. It was simply the moment that he judged Ryu and Kasumi's patience had finally been eclipsed by their curiosity and frustrated anger that Naruto wasn't talking to them on his own.

"I'm going to hunt and get some dry wood for a fire to cook with," Hayato announced after they'd secured the clearing where they would be resting for a while. "It may take a while, so stay here and keep each other company. If there's trouble, I showed you how to leave signs, right?"

"Hai Sensei!" they all acknowledged. Then he left.

Kasumi figured out what he was up to by the time they stopped, Ryu figured the same just moments after he "left", while Naruto clueless went to sit under the shade of a nearby tree. Before he got too far, Kasumi stopped him and said, "Naruto, we've got to talk."

Naruto froze, figuratively and literally. Ryu had once mentioned to him that it was never a good sign for the male in the relationship when a female said those words to him. The fact that Ryu, at this moment, was standing beside Kasumi and looking just as tense as she was told him that he undoubtedly was the male in trouble. And that he wouldn't be getting any help from his fellow comrade.

"Uh, sure Kasumi-chan," Naruto said nervously, turning to face them. "What's up?"

"What happened?" she simply asked.

Blinking in confusion, the blond tilted his head to the side and asked, "What _what_ happened?"

"In the fight with those two bandit leaders," Ryu elaborated. "We woke up right when Hayato-sensei collapsed. At least I did, and I knew Kasumi woke up soon after that. We saw what you did. We saw what happened. What we want to know is _how_ you did it, and why you haven't shown that kind of power to us before? An ace in the hole like that is..."

"It's not like that!" Naruto screamed at them.

Only then did the two older teens realize that the look on their teammate's face wasn't nervousness or embarrassment. It was fear. Real, genuine, panic inducing fear. He looked ready to bolt at their next word, so they kept quiet, stunned by his outburst.

"It's not like that..." he repeated quieter, looking utterly defeated all of a sudden.

"Naruto..." Kasumi tried, but he turned away from them.

"Wait," Ryu ordered, his voice firm. "So, it's not something you were holding back. I get that. Which means it was unintentional. But you know what it was, or at least where it came from. Is this some kind of bloodline or kekkai genkai?"

"No," he shook his head.

When he didn't continue, Kasumi decided to take things from there.

"Naruto, please. You have to talk to us." No response. "Fine. Then I'll talk. You say it's not a kekkai genkai or bloodline limit. Which means you _do_ know what it is, or at least where it's from. But you don't want us to know about it. How am I doing so far?"

He didn't say anything, but just from his body language alone, they could both tell that she was right on the money. She continued speaking, not really having expected a response.

"You've been a very good friend to us, Naruto, and there's not much that you don't share with us. I remember how you were in the Academy, you made it impossible not to notice you. Something in particular that I remember was how all the adults did their best _not_ to look at you. And how they told the rest of us to stay away from you. The civilian parents did at any rate."

"Something else," she started pacing, "your enormous chakra reserves. That kind of thing just doesn't happen naturally. If anything, my clan made sure that even if I wasn't top of the class that I learned the material. There are really only two ways to increase chakra reserves. Experience and physical training. What everyone calls experience is actually just mental training, exercising the chakra the same way physical training exercises the muscles. To be your age and have beyond Kage level reserves either means you're a special jounin in deep undercover using S-Class disguise techniques," Ryu laughed out loud and Naruto chuckled a bit, "OR, your chakra has been 'exercised' constantly since you were an infant." They both stopped laughing.

"The only way something like that could happen, without you consciously working and meditating on building up your chakra every single day of your life since you came from your mother's womb, is if foreign chakra were introduced into your chakra coils before they had fully developed. If the foreign chakra were already there, then your own chakra coils would form around it, using it as the foundation to build upon, giving you enhanced chakra coils, capable of generating and channeling larger amounts of chakra than the average person. What I can't figure out though, is why someone would do that to an infant, no matter who it is?"

Naruto was trembling by this point, wanting to run away, but something was making him stay and the conflict was tearing him apart inside. His fists were clenched so tight, he was afraid of drawing blood soon, and tears were streaming down his whiskered cheeks. He couldn't say anything though, not without breaking the law, and with it his friendship with these two people he'd attached himself to.

"Maybe if we put things into context," Ryu said. "Naruto's birthday is October 11, right? Twelve years ago. Third Great Shinobi War had been finished for a little over two years by then. The Fourth Hokage was in power. He was a renowned pacifist, despite being one of the greatest ninja ever to wear the Leaf headband, so he would not condone secret projects to create new bloodlines or super soldiers. He was also a seal master, and to do what you're saying Kasumi, putting foreign chakra into anyone requires sealing it into them, which means fuinjutsu. So he would have had to have been behind it if it was done at all."

"What else was happening around that time?" Kasumi asked out loud, though more to herself than to Ryu or Naruto. She kept pacing back and forth, tapping her chin with her fingers in time with her steps. "Something important was going on, or happened, but it's just slipping my mind. What happened twelve years ago on October 11th?"

Ryu's head snapped up and his eyes went wide as he answered, "The Kyuubi attacked Konoha on that day. The day that the Fourth defeated the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Naruto tensed, the fear in him nearly overwhelming that which held him back, he wanted to run away, he didn't want to face them when they learned the truth.

Kasumi stopped pacing and her jaw went slack. Ryu was similarly stunned.

"The..." her voice cracked a bit, "The bijuu, the Tailed Demon Beasts... They can't be destroyed. There are... legends, going back hundreds of years. The bijuu cannot be killed or destroyed. But."

"_If_ it were possible," Ryu frantically interjected.

"But if it were possible," Kasumi gulped, "a skilled enough seal master could seal them away. Defeating them, until they were released, or escaped."

"But the Kyuubi?" Ryu was shaking his head, "The Nine Tailed Fox? The strongest of them all?"

"Only something, some_one_ with their own chakra to continuously fuel the seal could hold the strongest. No object besides a living person could contain it," she explained, her voice flat, and her expression still stunned. "A living sacrifice. But... it couldn't just be anyone. An adult's chakra coils would be too rigid, too set in their ways and wouldn't be able to handle the foreign chakra. The person would explode as soon as it was sealed into them. Even if they had the most chakra possible for a human to have."

"But..." Ryu turned to look at Naruto's back, "you already said it. An infant, a newborn's chakra coils wouldn't have even begun to develop. And would use the foreign chakra as a foundation to build upon. Giving the seal more than enough chakra to remain fully active their entire life."

They all stood there in the clearing, the wind blowing in the trees and grass, not saying anything. None of them knew what they could say. Hayato, hiding in the bushes, was on the verge of bursting back into the clearing if the tension didn't release soon.

Naruto wanted to run, run as fast and as hard as possible and not stop until he collapsed. But it was too late now. They knew the truth, and to deny it, even for an instant, would be a lie that he could never take back. He didn't want to lie to his friends, even if they soon wouldn't be.

Kasumi was still mostly in shock, trying to process what she had figured out, trying to come to grips with what she now knew. It explained so much. It explained everything, everything that intrigued her about Naruto, from his chakra capacity, to what had happened with the bandit leaders, to why he was treated so poorly and even why his chakra control was so pitiful. He was the living sacrifice of Konoha, the super soldier of the old shinobi wars, a Jinchuuriki.

Ryu was in the same boat as Kasumi, stunned at the revelation of who and what his teammate really was, and why exactly he fit in so perfectly with a couple of clan heirs of somewhat prominent ninja clans. Until he remembered and asked himself, what does this change? Naruto's the same today as he was when they first met, as proven just an hour prior when he'd been joking around about the training with Gouken when they got back to Konoha. The only thing that changed was that they learned the one secret their friend and teammate had been keeping from them, and they'd learned that it was a secret worth keeping. That was it.

"So," Ryu shrugged, his tone casual, "how long have you known? Cause I just learned myself, and I gotta say, I'm already over it."

Naruto, Kasumi, and even Hayato in the bushes blinked and stared at the black-clad genin.

"What?" he shrugged again. "This doesn't exactly change anything, does it? Naruto didn't suddenly grow horns and nine tails, did he? And you're not exactly acting like a demon. Not to mention, the only time I've seen you use what we now know is the Kyuubi's chakra is when you were so pissed off you couldn't see straight... and you used it to kick the asses of the guys that beat the living shit out of me and were going to rape and probably kill Kasumi-chan here. I would have done the same if I could, to be honest."

Naruto turned fully around and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Kasumi just stared at Ryu for a minute longer, thinking over what he'd said and what she knew. And she realized, he was right. Naruto was still the same ninja that had changed her life and given her the confidence to push through and become a true kunoichi. He was the reason she was a ninja today and her gratitude towards him had not lessened one bit. If anything, because of what she now knew, it grew by leaps and bounds. Just from what she knew of fuinjutsu, which wasn't much, she knew that the moment Naruto either willed it, or if he allowed the seal to be damaged in any way, the Kyuubi could be unleashed and finish what it started twelve years ago. And judging from what she'd seen just a few days ago, Naruto's own anger and emotional pain either weakened or damaged the seal just enough so that some of the Kyuubi's chakra flowed into his body, empowering him in a way, but weakening the seal all the same.

The more pain and anger he feels, the more the seal weakens. From what she could tell, what happened with those bandits had never happened to Naruto previously. She'd seen what he'd been treated like as a child, she'd seen how he was treated in his daily life by practically everyone in the village, his home. To see that he was so hopeful and genuinely kind when he had all the reasons in the world to be filled with rage and anger at everything and everyone, it amazed her and filled the young girl with an awe that could not be described.

Filled with so much raw emotion, Kasumi did what any girl her age would do. She started crying, and ran and grabbed Naruto in a hug and did not let him go anywhere.

Stunned by this, Naruto just stood there for a minute, looking desperately at Ryu for help, but getting none, he finally just returned the embrace to the crying girl in his arms and held her as she released her emotions on him.

"Uh," Ryu stepped up to the two of them and shrugged helplessly, "I think what she's trying to say," he said over her wailing, "is that she's glad there aren't any more secrets between us and that nothing has changed at all. At least not between us."

"Heh," Naruto grinned and his hug with Kasumi became a little more genuine. "Looks like Hayate was right after all."

"Nii-chan, *sniff*, knew about-about this?" she sniffled, still hugging the blond tightly.

"He said that the Fourth wanted me to be seen as a hero to the village, and that," Naruto sniffled, "and that he already saw me as one. And when I told you guys, that you would feel the same way. Guess he was right." He wiped his eyes and hugged Kasumi tighter.

"Shouldn't have needed to guess, baka," Ryu ribbed on him a bit. "Thought you knew us by now."

"Yeah, well..." Naruto trailed off.

"It's OK, we understand," Kasumi mumbled into his shoulder. "I'm just sorry it took us so long to figure it out. Then I wouldn't have held Ryu back from beating all those people up that we thought were insulting you. Next time, I'll be sure to get a few of my own hits in first."

"Aw c'mon guys," Naruto laughed, "I don't want you getting in trouble because of me."

"No trouble at all from my perspective," Ryu grinned. "Nobody messes with my friends. Especially not when those friends are my teammates and sparring partners."

"Heh," Naruto blushed and felt like leaping for joy all around the clearing. He had friends. And they called him friend too.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting, but let's go ahead and eat so we can get back to Konoha," Hayato commented from directly behind the genin.

"GAAHHHH!" they all screamed. "DON'T DO THAT!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, unapologetic.

"Well, now that you two know about Naruto's... tenant, and decided that nothing's really changed, I guess we can start increasing your training for the next little while."

They all groaned, Naruto and Kasumi finally letting go of one another, and sat down for their meal. The sooner they were done, the sooner they were back on their way to Konoha, and Hayato had already told them that he planned on them being back in Konoha by nightfall.

"So, now that we've completed our first C-Rank mission," Ryu asked as they ate, "does that mean we can stop taking multiple daily D-Ranks? To make time for all the advanced training we'll be receiving that is?"

"Nope," Hayato replied. "First thing, tomorrow morning after we get back, report to Training Area 25 for morning training. We'll do twice as many D-Ranks as before now. Until we get assigned another C-Rank that is. You three are, after all, aiming to be the best Support Team in Konoha. Just because you completed one rather difficult C-Rank is no reason to loosen up. If anything, it's even more reason to buckle down and increase your training. You could all be a lot better. And..."

"And?" Kasumi prompted.

"Wasn't there a team jutsu that you were trying to pull off? Last you showed me, it still needed a _lot_ of work. But tell you what," Hayato said, "I'm still going to assign you twice as many D-Ranks. But just for tomorrow. If you manage to finish four in the morning, and eight in the afternoon, and still have time for our usual training sessions, then I'll _consider_ dropping it back to two in the morning and four in the afternoon. And all the extra time that we have from that, we'll commit to mastering that _Buntai jutsu_ of yours. All right?"

The three of them briefly exchanged glances, then looked back at their Jounin Sensei and nodded their heads. "Deal," they said together as one.

"Deal then," Hayato nodded back. "Now, if we're done gossiping over the water cooler, let's get on home, shall we?" All four of them got to their feet and were gone in a flash.

TBC!


	5. Wave Mission (Part 1)

It had been two weeks since Team One got back from their first C-Rank mission. With everything that happened, one might think that they deserved the whole week off, but no. Hayato gave them the day immediately after they got back for rest and recuperation, and then as he promised the very next day they were back to their usual schedule of team training at 7 AM until 8, _twice as many_ D-Rank missions until noon, more training and then _even more_ D-Rank missions until five in the evening where they trained on their own. Or went to Kasumi's place to hang out and relax.

Unfortunately, Naruto brooded as he stretched just outside the gates of Konoha, they hadn't done much of the latter since... well since his teammates had found out about him. Him and the Kyuubi...

It was very confusing for the young boy. Yeah, they had comforted him and told him and even shown him that they only cared about him and what _he_ did. That he was the demon fox's jailor and prison, rather than the next incarnation or whatever, proving that they saw _him_ first and the Fox almost never.

But still...

The whole thing was very uncomfortable for Naruto to talk about. He'd only known about the Kyuubi being sealed inside him for not even two months now, and the thing he did when he lost his temper... He didn't even know what that was, despite Hayato and Kasumi both explaining it to him, the former out of experience with such things, the latter just from what she observed of him alone.

In the few days it took them to get back to Konoha, after they'd figured out his secret just by putting together the few clues they had, he'd answered what questions he could, and Hayato fielded the rest, usually by reminding them that his status as the Kyuubi's jailor was an S-Class secret. The rest of the time they just asked how he felt about it and if he was really aware of the demon at all, but he wasn't and said as much.

When he thought of the Kyuubi, he couldn't help being filled with the same frustrated rage that almost everyone had about it. Yet here he was, keeping it held back, and while it was the sole reason for why he was so alone for so many years, he couldn't do anything to it _except_ keep it held back!

Since they'd gotten back, Hayato had done his best to make it so they didn't have the energy to risk letting anyone know that they knew let alone talk about it, but it kind of backfired. Yes, they kept their mouths shut, but rather than be exhausted from double the missions and more intense training, they just got more motivated and actually completed the training missions in less than half the time it was originally taking them, and they were surpassing whatever plans Hayato had in regards to their training level. Despite those facts, Naruto couldn't forget what he'd been reminded of by his friends discovering his secret.

He was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

It kept him awake some nights, the thoughts and raw emotions of what it all meant.

He just needed some time to sort things out. So, he'd started running more, practicing the sprints that Hayato-sensei had shown him, working on building up his 'wind' as it was called. Especially early in the morning, just before the sun rose over the Hokage monument. It was just him and the quiet of nature. He usually worked himself up to a sweat and was fully warmed up by the time he had to meet his team for morning training. That's what he was doing now, stretching right outside the gate to prepare for his morning run.

Just as he finished working on his legs, he caught sight of a familiar face and called out. He may enjoy the quiet time to himself, but Naruto never missed a chance to speak to those he called friends, even if only for a minute or two.

"Hinata! Hey!" he called.

The white-eyed girl froze and turned around at the familiar voice. "N-Naruto-kun!" she stuttered, surprised at seeing him so early in the morning.

"Hi!" he said again as he reached her. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, I, um, I, well I, uhm..." she twiddled her fingers nervously, looking back and forth between him and the ground. After about ten seconds of this, Naruto nearly sweat-dropped and finally had enough.

Putting his hand on her shoulder in a friendly way, he said to her, "Y'know, that wasn't meant to be a brain-buster. I just meant that I was surprised to see you, because I've been running out here for the past week or so, but I've never seen you around at this time. Not many people are awake at this hour is all."

"Oh," she blushed, looking solidly at the ground now. Naruto finally removed his hand.

"So... what _are_ you doing? Training, or running an errand of some kind? If you need to get to it, I'm sorry for holding you up," he apologized.

"Ano, no, it's nothing like that," she quietly replied, still looking at the ground.

Naruto frowned. The day after Kasumi and Ryu had figured out about the Kyuubi, despite their reassurances, he'd tried to avoid talking to them and basically pull an 'Uchiha-teme' as he and Ryu jokingly called it. They caught him before he could even try and told him point blank that they'd sooner kick his ass than see him acting like master of brooding, Uchiha Sasuke. What had finally convinced him was Kasumi sharing something with him.

She'd told him that when people are hurt, or sometimes think that they've hurt others, they'll try to stay away from everyone and get real depressed and not talk to anyone until they've got no one left. Well, actually she'd used bigger and different words at first, but he'd gotten the message. People that 'hid' had no friends, and he'd been there too often to believe that, no matter the reason, it was never a good thing.

"Hinata," he spoke firmly. She froze. "Look at me, Hinata," he said.

Slowly, she raised her head and he was pleased to see that she met his eyes, even if only for a second. Her face was a vivid red color, but that wasn't bothering him at the moment.

"There," he said, "That's better. I don't know what's so interesting about the ground around me, but I like it much better when I can look you in the face. You're pretty... uh..." Naruto trailed off, now matching Hinata's blush suddenly, which had deepened several degrees already. "Uh, you're pretty... cool, Hinata. Yeah. And, you're my friend. And I want all my friends to be able to look me in the eye. All right?"

Still blushing like a tomato, Hinata hesitantly nodded and replied, "A-alright."

"Now, uh, what _are_ you doing up this early, Hinata-chan?" he asked, grinning sheepishly at her.

"Oh!" she startled, and started twiddling her fingers again. "I, uh, was going to meet Kurenai-sensei for breakfast, but, uh, she's still training, so I was going to go pick some flowers."

"Huh," Naruto scratched his head. What was it with girls and picking flowers anyway?

"Well, if you've got some time," he shrugged, "want to train with me some? It gets kind of boring running by myself, and I've heard rumors that there's some kind of monster that shows up around this time every morning. I was going to ask Ryu, but, well, his family has him training from an hour before dawn and I'm not going anywhere _near_ that!"

Hinata was just staring wide-eyed at him, though her color was less red at least.

"Uh, Hinata-chan?" Naruto waved his hand in front of her lavender eyes.

"Ano, is it, I mean, if it's all right with Naruto-kun, I... I would like to..." she started getting quieter and quieter, but Naruto had heard enough.

"Great! Just keep a look out for that 'green beast' the gate-guys talked about. I'm going to finish stretching. Let me know if you need any help with that, OK?" he then walked right back over to his starting spot and resumed his stretching exercises. After about a minute, Hinata came closer, removed her jacket and began doing her own stretches.

Naruto himself was in his 'training outfit', the red gi that Ryu had given him back during that first week of training. He wore it any time he was training outside of team training sessions. Particularly when meeting with Gouken-sensei in the late afternoon. For one thing it was less restricting than his jumpsuit, but it also kept him cool and let him keep going for quite a while.

Once he was a loose as he could get, he patiently waited for Hinata to be ready, and then without a word both of them shot off around the outer wall in a full speed dash. Naruto was working on using the dashing/running sprint that he'd been working on, while Hinata ran with the same basic sprint that most ninja used to run with. At certain points, she pulled ahead, but at other times he pulled rapidly ahead before he changed his pace and then back again.

They kept this up for about ten minutes, Hinata going at a constant pace, Naruto constantly adjusting his from the dash sprint, to the lopping marathon run, to the standard ninja run and then back to the sprint. Then the blue haired girl, already sweating and breathing deeply, began to slow down some, and Naruto was right there the moment after he noticed.

"Hey," he said, only beginning to breath heavier, "how you doing?"

"..." she could only gasp for a while, and then finally answered, "I'm... not very good... with... stamina. I've been... working on... it though."

"I can tell," he nodded. "But I think you can do better. C'mon Hinata-chan, you've been keeping up with me so far. I know you can keep going. If me, the Dead Last of our class can keep running like I've been doing all morning," he demonstrated by changing his pace to move around to her other side before changing it back, "then you can definitely keep going!"

Hinata stared open-mouthed at him, and he just kept grinning.

"Come on Hinata, you can do it," Naruto said.

Hinata smiled back at him, almost shyly, before setting her jaw determinedly and resuming her original, steady pace, even though her muscles were beginning to cramp up on her.

"Great!" he grinned at her. "Tell you what, I've been trying something different with my own training, and you don't have to do it if you don't want to. You do know the tree-climbing exercise, right?"

Hinata nodded, sweat beginning to drip from her forehead. "Kurenai...sensei showed us how, the week before we... did the joint-mission, with your team."

"Great! Well, I'm going to be changing my pace on the wall, and then running back to the ground for the dash-sprint Hayato-sensei taught me how to do, then back on the wall for the next change of pace. See if you can keep up!" he grinned and the next time it came close, he ran up the side of the wall and continued running.

Hinata stared with wide-eyes and almost couldn't believe that he could maintain his speed while exercising his chakra control like that! After another five minutes, Naruto had run up to the top of the wall, then back down to the ground and dashed around one of the gates they were passing before running back up the wall, and had done this twice now. Hinata was pouring with sweat by now, and her black shirt was completely soaked, but she made sure she was maintaining her same pace.

The next time Naruto dashed around a gate, Hinata fell in just behind him, and when he ran up the wall, she was right behind him the whole way. He looked back and grinned widely at her.

"Way to go Hinata-chan!" he cheered, and sped up. She soon matched him on the way down, and then overtook him on the next time up.

After another five minutes of this new venue, Hinata was about ready to drop, and Naruto himself was feeling fully warmed up by now. It was around this time that they were passing by the training grounds gate that they met the fabled 'Green Beasts' that Naruto had been warned against.

"That's the way Lee!" a very loud voice echoed through the forest. "Now tell me, my cute pupil, can you feel the Flames of Youth exploding within your body?"

"Hai Gai-sensei!" a younger, but just as loud voice screamed.

It wasn't long before the pair of rookie genin came across the source of the voices they'd been hearing. And they almost immediately wished they hadn't.

A tall, muscular man with black hair fashioned into a glossy bowl cut and huge, hairy black eyebrows wearing a green spandex jumpsuit and jounin vest and umber leg-warmers up to his knees was jogging at a grueling pace, smiling brightly the whole way. The only impressive thing was that the man was not the slightest bit out of breath as he went along, if anything he looked full of energy.

Beside him, keeping the exact same pace, though sweating and more out of breath, was the man's clone. At least that's what Naruto assumed, as sometimes his own clones looked like shorter and/or distorted versions of himself. Hinata thought the boy their age was the older man's son. Nevertheless, the boy had his black hair cut into the same glossy bowl style, the same bushy eyebrows, though his eyes were certainly larger and wider, they were the same dark color as the jounin's. He was also wearing the same green spandex jumpsuit and umber legwarmers, but instead of a jounin vest, only had a simple belt with his hitai-ate attached at the front.

"LEE!" the older one suddenly screamed, grinning brightly.

"GAI-SENSEI!" the smaller one screamed back, grinning _just_ as brightly.

"LEE!" the old one was no in tears and running right at the smaller one.

"GAI-SENSEI!" he was in tears as well and running in slow motion towards the big one.

It could have been the sunrise, Hinata figured it was the sunrise in their eyes or something, but suddenly the sun was directly behind the two of them and waves were crashing and wind was blowing and weird stuff was happening that _should not happen_! For some reason, Hinata and Naruto both felt like ripping their eyes out and scrubbing their brains raw.

"What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed and rubbed his eyes, hoping that would wake him up from whatever hallucination was affecting him. Just to be thorough though, in case this was a genjutsu attack, he used the method of dispelling genjutsu that Kasumi and Ryu had helped him develop with instruction from Hayato-sensei. "KAI!" he screamed and a pulse of pure chakra exploded from Naruto in all directions for about half a mile. Every genjutsu for that distance was immediately dispelled, forcing some ANBU to reapply their stealth-jutsu, and some other people to be very embarrassed when their cosmetic jutsu stopped working in front of witnesses. The two in front of Naruto and Hinata remained unaffected.

Well, mostly unaffected, since Naruto's action drew their attention, before they'd been ignoring the two genin and now all their focus was on them. Thankfully, it managed to get rid of the weird sun-image-genjutsu at the same time, so there was that at least.

"Ah hah!" the big one, Gai-sensei by all accounts, exclaimed, no longer in tears and pointing at both Naruto and Hinata. "Fellow Konoha-nin, it is wondrous to greet you this fine morning and seeing you fanning the Flames of Youth!"

Naruto couldn't help shivering as both he and his companion heard the capital letters in that.

"Yosh!" Lee, the small one, suddenly shouted, fire practically exploding out of his big round eyes.

"Lee!" Gai exclaimed, grinning brightly.

"Uh... let's get out of here Hinata," Naruto quickly grabbed the girl and they both started running as fast as they possibly could. Naruto didn't even shift from his dash-sprint, and he hadn't let go of Hinata yet either, so she had to keep up or get dragged along behind.

_Hokage Tower_

_Later That Morning_

"Hey Naruto," Ryu called as they entered the Mission Room, "What's up with you? You're looking kind of ragged this morning. I didn't think Hayato-sensei's training had gotten to you that bad already."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," Naruto replied. "Just a really weird morning."

"Finally ran into the 'Green Beasts' then, huh?" Ryu chuckled, but not too loudly.

Naruto glared at his friend, but did not reply.

"Well that, and he and Hinata-chan stopped by this morning and my brother ran them through some drills," Kasumi added her two cents.

"Whoa, wait a minute, _Hyuuga_ Hinata?! _The _Hyuuga Hinata of the Hyuuga Clan? _That_ Hinata-chan?"

"Yeah, you know any others?" Naruto shot back at him.

"Damn," the black-clad ninja scratched the back of his head while in shocked amazement, "And I thought your luck at having us as teammates was pretty awesome. Having the Hyuuga heir as a girlfriend? What's next, were your parents a Kage and a Princess too?"

"Huh?" the blond's eyes filled with confusion.

"Stop it Ryu," Kasumi chastised her teammate, "Don't tease him. I still insist _we're_ the lucky ones."

"Are you kidding? Luck is contagious you know. If I hang around Mr. Golden long enough, maybe I'll get some awesome luck by proxy or something. Ha ha ha hahahaha!" Ryu burst out into good-natured laughter.

"If you are quite finished," a deep voice asked from directly behind them.

"AAAAHHHHH!" all three screamed and jumped at least four feet off the ground.

Turning, they glared and clutched at their chests while trying to get their breathing back under control. Their Jounin Sensei, Kanzaki Hayato stood there with his arms crossed and his eyes shadowed by his headband. Despite their strides in increasing their awareness and perfecting the chakra sensor technique, they had no more luck with detecting their sensei's approach than they did the first day they met him. The worst part of it was though, he didn't even bother hiding his presence, he was just that stealthy by nature.

"DON'T DO THAT!" they shouted at him for the millionth time it seemed like.

He just continued to glare at them with his arms crossed until they quieted down and turned around to face the Hokage and Iruka-sensei to receive their latest pile of missions. Since their first successful C-Rank mission, they'd been averaging no less than 100 D-Rank missions a week, and then had Team training and personal training on top of all that. Nevertheless, between all of them using multiple clones, primarily Shadow Clones, a day they managed to pull it off, and the Team training sessions had turned mostly into strategy and tactic exercises and chances to work on their _Buntai jutsu_ than the hellish physical conditioning that they had started out with. The rest of their time, except for the two or three hours in the late evening before they collapsed into bed, they spent at either the Mugen Tenshin Clan compound, or the Hayabusa Clan compound.

Sure, they didn't have a lot of free time, and they were exhausted pretty much all the time and fell asleep dead to the world every night, but they were getting stronger and they knew it. If it weren't for their rather diverse training, it could be argued that they were the strongest team of the rookie generation. But because Hayato kept shifting their training, from combat, to defense, to tracking, to support, to teamwork, and then to more generic skills such as repair work, mapping, tactical and strategic support, and even bureaucratic paperwork, their overall skills could be shown to be relatively comparable to the other teams of their generation.

It was for the fact that their overall skills _were_ so equally balanced that the Hokage and their sensei had chosen today to give them a treat of sorts.

"Ah, Team One, excellent timing as always," the Hokage grinned as he smoked his pipe and sorted the mission scrolls before them. "My oh my, I see that you've actually cleared out the non-recurring D-Rank missions for the rest of the week. And today I actually have Team 7 coming in today as well. Hm, this does make things rather difficult, given what you're asking for."

"Just give us as many missions as you can, Old Man," Naruto scoffed, cleaning his left ear with his pinky finger. "Hayato-sensei put in the request for this like a week ago, didn't he? We're supposed to be getting missions that teach us how to be the best Support Team in Konoha. And that's what we want!"

Kasumi and Ryu didn't verbalize it, but they both nodded along in complete agreement with their teammate. Hayato, just behind them, gave the Hokage a look and tilted his head minutely to the side, as though asking a question. He then emphasized it, for Hayato it was anyway, by raising one eyebrow expectantly.

The Hokage coughed to clear his throat while he pulled one very specific scroll from one very specific pile amongst those on the desk. Iruka noticed exactly which that was, and was surprised. "Hokage-sama?" he started to ask, but a look from the old leader quickly silenced the young teacher.

"Ah, well then, here we are," the Hokage said with a bit of flourish. "I had told him that he would have to wait a while, but I suppose that Team 7 can pick up the sudden slack of D-Rank mission clearance we'll be expecting for a while. You can come in now!"

Surprised, the three genin perked up and turned around to look as the door to the mission room opened up and admitted an older man with a beer belly and the outfit of a common craftsman. Judging from his appearance, as well as the nearly full jug he was lugging over his shoulder, he was well on his way to getting drunk. The genin turned expectantly towards the Hokage, and then their Jounin Sensei.

"You've earned another C-Rank mission," was Hayato's lone reply.

"And you've been clearing out the D-Rank missions quite regularly," the Hokage added. "The other teams—" the Hokage was interrupted by Iruka coughing rather loudly, "*_cough_* Kakashi *_cough_*!", who he gave a stern look to before continuing, "— have been showing up and we have nothing but the most demeaning and easiest jobs there are to do for them. They've been getting quite impatient and are wanting more difficult and task-demanding missions. So I'm sending you lot on a long-term C-Rank Protection Mission."

"Heh, so long as we don't have to deal with more bandits that have ninja skills, should be no sweat Hokage-jiji!" Naruto grinned and nodded confidently.

The Hokage and Hayato shared a look, which was more '_Ninja skilled bandits? You have some explaining to do!_' on the Hokage's part and '_Don't worry, there's nothing _TO _explain._' on Hayato's.

"So who do we have to protect this time? Not another princess I hope," Naruto whined.

"Yeah," Ryu agreed with a laugh.

"Oh come on guys, Azula-hime was not that bad," Kasumi argued.

"At the end of the mission, no," Ryu argued back, "but at the beginning? And the way she just showed up as we were leaving? With a full battalion? Demanding to come along? And the whining and the complaining and the..."

"All right, I get your point," Kasumi huffed and crossed her arms.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow and gave another look towards Hayato, who was studiously ignoring the Hokage and staring patiently at his genin as though their argument was the most important thing going on in the room at that moment.

"Are you serious?" the old drunk finally spoke. "These are the ninja that are going to protect me? Me? The master bridge builder of _Nami no kuni_, the famous craftsman of Wave Country, the great Tazuna?!"

"An old drunk?" Ryu observed out loud. "Easy. Well, easier than out last mission, that's for sure."

"Hey!" Tazuna protested.

"Ah, one more thing," the Hokage said with no small amount of relish. "Given the goal of your team is to become the strongest Support Team in Konoha, it was decided that this C-Rank mission, at no further cost to the client, would be another joint-mission for your team. Thus, not only will you have to protect Tazuna and his work, but you will have to get along with and support this second team. And to make things more... heh, lively, it will be a genin team that you have not yet had the chance to work with."

He gestured to Iruka and whispered, "Send them in."

"_DYNAMMIC ENTRY_!" a sudden shout went out before Iruka could even get out of his chair.

The doors slammed opened, actually bouncing off the walls only to be knocked back even harder as two green blurs kicked them open. Team One, more from experience at being surprised by their sensei popping up out of the blue than any kind of ninja instinct, scattered and drew their weapons while making sure they covered the Hokage from any kind of attack. Hayato merely side-stepped the green blurs and clothes-lined the two of them before they got even halfway across the room.

"Ah, Gai-san, so glad of you to join us, I was just about to call for you," the Hokage said, puffing on his pipe for a moment.

"Gkh-hai, Hokage-sama," Gai choked out, Hayato's arm still dug into his center mass. When Hayato finally let them go, Gai immediately straightened, took a deep breath and was all grins and proud poses. The young genin that had also been victim to Hayato's counter-attack on the other hand was still on the floor and struggling to get up.

Realizing that whatever threat there had been was neutralized, Team One relaxed and took in the new arrivals. Then Naruto recognized the two that had ran into his sensei's arms. They were the ones he and Hinata had run away from this morning. He was about to point and shout at them, but he felt a pair of hands on both his shoulders.

"Huh?" he looked back and saw that Ryu and Kasumi each had a hand on him, holding him back a bit.

"Let's just say that Team Eleven's sensei has a bit of a... reputation," Ryu whispered to him.

"And you and Hinata did kind of run straight into our clan compound in trying to get away from Gai and his apprentice," Kasumi added.

"And you really don't want to see what happens when Gai-san realizes he's been recognized," Ryu added with a shudder. "You _really_ don't."

Naruto wisely just nodded his head and kept his mouth shut.

"YOSH! Gai-sensei, you are the epitome of cool with your most excellent style of entrance!" a voice screamed from the still open doorway. Everyone turned to look and saw as weird a team of genin as any.

At the head was a miniature, genin version of Gai, right down to the thick black eyebrows, glossy bowl-shaped haircut, and green spandex attire. On one side of him was the most straight-laced Hyuuga Team One had ever seen, his hair reaching past his shoulders and still having enough left over for a small ponytail at the bottom, probably to keep his hair from falling out of place. On the other side, standing as tall as her male compatriots, with her hair done up in two buns on either side of her hair, and dressed simply in a bright pink vest, and forest green kuzi pants, was the most blatant tomboy any of the young genin had ever encountered.

"LEE!" Gai suddenly exclaimed upon seeing his team walk in.

"GAI-SENSEI!" 'Lee' in turn exclaimed.

"LEE!" Gai had tears running down his face now.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee too had tears in his eyes.

"Erhrm," Hayato stood between the two, arms crossed and a dark look in his eyes. The genin all noticed that the pouch he kept his weapons in was unlatched and half-open.

"Yes, well," the Hokage spoke up. "Gai, as I am sure you must be aware, Hayato here is training his genin to be a Support Team. He's already teamed them up with every other team from their graduating class, so now I've decided to branch them out to the other genin teams available. Yours just happens to be first up."

"YOSH! That is a most YOUTHFUL goal, my fellow jounin!" Gai shot Hayato a thumbs-up, his smile actually sparkling. "I would be most honored to assist you in attaining that goal!"

"Uh, yeah, OK, thanks," Hayato mumbled, trying very hard not to look at Gai at all.

"Why don't you introduce yourselves to each other," the Hokage 'suggested' to the genin.

"YOSH!" Lee saluted, his perfectly straight form almost vibrating from the motion. "I am Rock Lee, genin and apprentice to the wonderful Gai-sensei! It is my dream to prove that one can be a powerful ninja on taijutsu alone, even without ninjutsu and genjutsu!"

After that rather abrupt introduction, not many were willing to next, so Naruto decided to anyway.

"Alright! I am Uzumaki Naruto! Team One's heavy-hitter and I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever! Believe it!" he exclaimed, just as loud as Lee.

"Oh god, there are more of them," the girl with buns in her hair mumbled. Everyone looked to her expectantly. She sighed and shrugged. "My name is Tenten, I'm a weapons specialist and I hit the bulls-eye one hundred out of one hundred times, and my dream is to be a powerful kunoichi like Tsunade-sama of the Sannin."

Kasumi quietly cleared her throat after Tenten was done and introduced herself. "My name is Tenshin Kasumi of the Mugen Tenshin Clan. My goal is to become a powerful and respected kunoichi, and to never become the Head of my Clan... because that would mean I've got lots of nieces and nephews to play with!" she squealed the last part.

"Uh... do you know something I don't about her brother?" Ryu whispered to Naruto.

"Tch," the Hyuuga boy scoffed and crossed his arms. "My name is Hyuuga Neji. I have no intention of revealing to you my aspirations, nor what fate has decreed for me."

"Great, another 'genius'," Ryu grumbled. "Hayabusa Ryu, of the Hayabusa Clan. Yes, _that_ Hayabusa Clan. I'm teammates with Naruto and Kasumi, and I'm one day going to be the right-hand man of the Hokage," he then not-too-subtly jerked his thumb at Naruto.

"Well, now that we're all familiar with each other, let's get down to business as the saying goes. Since you're going to be working together for the next little while," He pulled out a mission scroll from the pile in front of him, pointedly ignoring the glares the genin were sending back and forth to one another.

"So," the Hokage continued, "since it's not exactly fair to make your team, Gai, which is due for it's next C-Rank mission anyway, go back to doing D-Rank missions, you will be performing a joint C-Rank mission, with Gai's as the lead team. Each of you will still be Jounin Sensei for your respective teams, so you may not give orders to the others genin, but as Hayato's team is training to be the Support Team, they are to actually support the others. Figuring out the dynamics from there should be good training for all of you."

"YOSH!" Gai and Lee exclaimed, flames actually burning in their eyes.

"You can come in now," the Hokage called out to a side door, which soon was slowly opened to reveal a middle-aged man in a fisherman's hat, and old brown workman clothes. He had well-weathered skin, gray whiskers and wore glasses on the brim of his nose. He was also drunk, as evidenced by the half-empty bottle in his hand.

"Your mission is to protect Tazuna here during his journey home and to provide security for a bridge-building project that he is responsible for," the Hokage explained, reading from the request form the bridge builder had filled out.

"Hah hah hah!" Tazuna laughed drunkenly and said, "That's right! I am the super awesome bridge builder from Name no kuni, the Land of Waves! And I expect all you ninja to protect me while I finish my super awesome bridge! That's right!"

"Ah, it fills my heart with joy to see so many people filled with the Flames of Youth!" Gai screamed out through tears.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee screamed through his own tears.

"LEE!" Gai faced his pupil, tears running down his cheeks.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee was now blubbering.

"LEE!" the two green beasts embraced in a manly hug of youthfulness, so much Youth bursting from them that it shone like the sunset on the waves of a beach that was nowhere near the Hokage's office in Konoha.

"I think I'm hallucinating," Kasumi rubbed her eyes.

"I think I've gone blind," Ryu dully responded.

"I think they're weird... but I like them," Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, just don't act like them and we'll all get along just fine," Ryu advised.

"Gai," the Hokage interrupted with a subtle cough.

"HAI HOKAGE-SAMA!" the larger green beast belted out, tears running down his face.

"You leave tomorrow. That is all, dismissed."

"Hai," Hayato suddenly had Gai in a headlock while Neji had temporarily paralyzed Lee and both of them were dragging their respective burdens out the door while the rest of the genin trailed along behind.

_Konoha Gate (Eastern Exit)_

_Next Morning_

"Yattai! Let's get going guys!" Naruto exclaimed, leaping ahead out the gate as the combined team plus client started to move out for Wave Country.

"Don't worry," Kasumi remarked to Tenten beside her, "He's always like this when going on C-Ranks."

"At least this time we don't have a royal caravan showing up at the last minute this time," Ryu commented gratefully.

"Oh come on guys," Naruto laughed once they'd all caught up with him, "Azula-chan wasn't that bad."

"Azula?" Tenten asked, curious.

"Ozai Azula-hime," Kasumi replied without missing a beat.

Gai, Neji, Tenten, and Tazuna all froze mid-step, tripping the client and making the ninja all skip a step.

"Yes, _that_ Ozai Azula," Ryu dryly commented. "She tagged along on our last C-Rank mission."

"That is impossible," Neji rebutted Ryu's comment. "People of such importance do not... tag along on such simple assignments. They either hire us to protect them, or exercise their rights as nobles. Such is the way of fate."

"Tell that to her grandfather, who we _were_ hired to protect," the dark-clad Hayabusa replied.

"You actually met a member of the Ozai royal family?!" Tazuna sputtered, once he was back on his feet.

"Yes," Kasumi kept her answer simple.

"Hmph!" Neji grunted, turning his head away.

"Ne, Ryu," Naruto 'whispered', still loud enough for everyone in the group to hear him, "Are we sure this guy is related to Hinata-chan? He could be an imposter!"

Ryu chuckled and clapped his friend on the back. "No, unfortunately Naruto, Neji-teme here is actually what all Hyuuga are typically like. Hinata-chan is the atypical Hyuuga. Which I think makes her that much more unique. Special, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah," Naruto nodded after some thought, "I do know what you mean." His grin widened a bit.

They traveled East for a good solid three hours, the companionable silence only occasionally broken by either Gai, Lee, or Naruto, the former two with exclamations of Youth, Training, or comments on the weather, the latter with queries and observations towards his temporary teammates, which sometimes Kasumi and Ryu supported with their own questions and comments.

Late afternoon, after they'd traveled more than half the distance between Konoha and Wave Country, they came across a couple of puddles at the side of the road. Normally this wouldn't need comment or even warrant anything more than a passing notice, save for the fact that Neji, Hayato, and Gai all immediately shifted their stances from completely casual to ready-to-fight casual.

Ryu noticed them all getting more tense and it took him a moment longer to figure out what it was. He signaled Kasumi and Naruto, but she didn't even react and he didn't even notice. Tenten and Lee were both up flanking the client and either hadn't noticed, or were distracted by other things, but as far as Ryu could tell they did not know what was about to happen.

"Oh, uh, hey," Naruto suddenly blurted out, "I'll be right back, I've just to, uh, go over here for a bit.

"Huh?" Ryu wondered what his teammate was talking about, raced over to the puddle and faced the bushes. Did he know? Had he figured it out on his own? What was he going to do about it?

Kasumi giggled and turned her head away, covering her mouth to hold back even more giggles. She likewise turned Tenten around to face the other direction from Naruto.

Naruto unzipped his pants and then let out a sigh of relief as a trickling sound of liquid hitting liquid came from his general direction.

Ryu's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he slapped his hands over his own mouth to hold back the undoubtedly loud laughter that would be coming from his throat if he hadn't. Neji had a ticked vein throbbing along his head that everyone was sure had nothing to do with his bloodline limit. Hayato and Gai each shared a look with the other, smirked (each in their own way) and then shrugged. Lee and Tazuna did the typical guy thing and half-turned away to give another guy some privacy.

After about half to three quarters of a minute, the sound finally ceased, Naruto gave another sigh of relief, zipped his pants up and hurried to catch up to them as they'd all kept walking and had gone past him by that point. He gratefully accepted the bio-degradable non-alcoholic wipes from Kasumi and thoroughly cleaned his hands before tossing it all the way back to his 'rest stop' where it soaked in the 'water' left behind.

Those that had been tense before kept their senses wide alert, the more experienced ninja expecting something to happen any moment now, but as they came around the bend with nothing but open road, and the sight of a couple other travelers further up ahead, they all relaxed a notch as nothing happened.

"Quite a distraction, eh Gai?" Hayato casually commented as they continued along.

If he hadn't been already, Gai was entirely red-faced, and his mouth was trembling in wavy lines, half between a frown, a grimace, a smile, and open-faced laughter. He just grunted and nodded his head.

"Eh? Did I miss something Hayato-sensei?" Naruto turned back to look at the two jounin conversing.

Neji, still at the lead, growled and slapped a hand over his white eyes. Kasumi suppressed another giggle, while Ryu just grinned openly at the whole world.

"Gai-sensei? Are you well?" Lee asked, concerned at the unfamiliar face his teacher was making.

Gai nodded again. "H-hai... Lee," he spoke solemnly, that most were definitely impressed with, "I must express something very important to you. There are times, and there will be times where something occurs or that happens where you will feel an overwhelming desire to express your Youth openly to the world. Those times may not be proper, based upon circumstance or location or company. In such eventualities, it is therefore prudent to then excuse yourself from the circumstances or what-have-you as soon as is prudent and polite, and once you ensure that such expressions will not inconvenience your comrades or that you are in private to safely express these overwhelming feelings of Youth!"

"Hai Gai-sensei!" Lee saluted the man.

"Excuse me, I shall now to an out-laying patrol," Gai announced to the group before vanishing without so much as a green blur. Moments later, very loud sounds of raucous laughter could be heard echoing throughout the forest around them.

_Meanwhile..._

Back at the bend in the road, two chuunin Kiri Assassins canceled their concealing technique, which had disguised them as a puddle of water on the road. Despite the cancellation however, they were both dripping wet. And they smelled a bit too.

"That brat _DIES_!" the first and oldest one growled, his bladed gauntlet clenched lethally.

"Slowly and painfully," the second agreed, his own weapon at the ready.

"... But, uh, first we need to clean up before we report in to Zabuza-sama," the oldest of the Demon Brothers, Gozu remarked to his partner and twin brother.

"... Um, yeah," Meizu, the younger and twin-horned Demon Brother agreed.

They silently walked off into the bushed to a nearby stream they had scouted earlier that day.

_Ferry To Wave Country_

It had been a tight fit, but they all managed to get onto the skiff together and were now rowing through a dense fog bank towards the island of waves. Hayato and Gai sat near the middle, Tazuna right behind them with only the ferryman being behind him, while all the genin sat quietly at the front of the boat.

Soon, the ferryman quietly announced, "We're coming up on the bridge. You'll be able to see it soon. We just go alongside it and soon we'll be at the port to Wave Country."

Shortly after he said it, through the blinding mist, they saw a massive shadow up ahead, which soon revealed itself to be a massive structure, nearly a hundred feet above them, rising up out of the water like a monolith. It wasn't until they were right along beside it that they could see any of the detail that was going into the building of such a structure and that it really was as awesome as it's builder claimed it to be.

"WOW! That is awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "You really built that Old Man?"

"Silence!" Neji snapped in a hiss.

"Hey! Be quiet up there! We're all in a whole lot of trouble if we get caught as it is. Why do you think it is that we're coming in under the cover of fog, or that I'm rowing in instead of using the engine, huh?"

Naruto hung his head, sufficiently chastised.

"Sorry about this, I know you're taking a huge risk," Tazuna spoke with the ferryman.

The man just shrugged and kept rowing, but also keeping a sharper eye out for trouble on the water.

"Tazuna-san," Hayato spoke up after a minute of silence, "There is something Gai and I need to know if we are to go any further with you after dropping you off at your home."

Tazuna gulped, starting to sweat a little.

"Despite Naruto's... effective measure in preventing their ambush," Gai added, "we're all aware that there were ninja lying in wait along the road to the coast earlier today."

"We have no proof," Hayato pointed out, "but we strongly suspect that their target was you. Which immediately escalates this mission from a standard C-Rank into at least a B-Rank, if not an A-Rank if there is a jounin involved. The point is, however, that you lied about the threat level of this mission, and we are well within our rights to drop you off the moment you are at your home and leave you be."

"Wait! No! You... you can't do that..." Tazuna moaned pitifully.

"Actually Tazuna-san," Gai folded his arms, his expression gravely serious, "for your un-youthful actions, we may very well do that indeed. However, Hayato-san and I are reasonable people and Konoha does not turn its back on those needing its protection. If you properly explain the situation, then we will gladly bring forth our most youthful efforts in order to aid you in your time of need."

"Now why did you lie?" Hayato demanded.

After a heavy silence, the bridge builder looked up and quietly said, "It looks like I have to tell you the real story. I mean, I would like for you to hear my story..." he trailed off an looked at each of the ninja that had come with him. "As you said," he began, "This job is outside of your job description. An extremely terrible man is after my life."

"An extremely terrible man?" Gai repeated.

"An extremely terrible man?!" Lee copied.

"Hai," Tazuna nodded.

"Who is it?" Hayato questioned.

"You should all have at least heard the name," the old man trailed off, sweat beading his brow before he answered, "Ship-Building Billionaire Gato."

"Gato? The one from Gato Shipping Company?" Tenten exclaimed. "He's one of the richest men in the world! Also one of the shortest and ugliest according to all the magazines."

"Who's that? What is all that?" Naruto asked quietly.

"Yes," Tazuna said, "He is nothing more than the president of a shipping company to the public eye, but... In the Underground world, he uses gangs and ninja to smuggle drugs and contraband goods. He also does nasty jobs like take over other companies and small countries. A year ago, he set his sights on my home, Wave Country. He entered this country using violence and wealth as his shield, and he quickly took over this entire country's sea traffic and shipping. On an island like Wave, controlling the sea and waterways means ruling over the wealth, politics, and people of this island. And the one thing Gato is afraid of... is the completion of the bridge that has been under construction for quite some time."

"I see," Kasumi said, "So you, as the one building the bridge became an obstacle to him."

"Then that ambush we avoided was set up by ninja that were sent by Gato," Ryu remarked, glancing at Kasumi and Naruto.

"But I do not understand," Neji spoke up, "He's a dangerous man that is known for using ninjas. Why did you hide this fact when you came to Konoha?"

"Wave Country is a really poor country," Tazuna answered the genin, "Even the Daimyo does not have much money. And we citizens don't have much either. We don't have the funds to request an expensive B-Rank or above mission. If you quit your mission after I land, I'll be killed for sure on my way home. But there's no need to blame yourselves. Only my cute eight-year-old grandson will cry and cry and cry some more. And my daughter will just hold a grudge against Konoha ninja and live a lonely life, forever cursing the name of Konoha and all it's ninja. But it's not your fault."

The two teams shared various looks between each other, Team One looking the most guilt-ridden, while Neji actually appeared to be affronted at being manipulated by such a man. Finally it came to the Jounin, who both shrugged at each other. Then Gai turned around and gave the bridge builder a thumbs up and grinned broadly at him, his teeth practically shining in the mist.

"Not to worry Tazuna-san!" Gai told him. "Konoha shinobi do not abandon their comrades, and your story has touched my soul! With my Flames of Youth, I and my lovely genin will protect you and your bridge with our very lives! Have no fear!"

"Shh!" the ferryman warned him.

Hayato sighed and added to Gai's rather colorful statement, "I guess it can't be helped, we will continue escorting you."

"Oh! That's good to hear!" Tazuna grinned happily, while containing a smug look behind his hat.

"We're almost there," the ferryman announced. "Looks like we haven't been found out yet, Tazuna."

"Thanks again," the bridge builder thanked him.

Soon they reached the aqueduct that the bridge was built over and floating down one of the tunnels, the red emergency lights overhead the only illumination. At the end of the tunnel, light shone indicating that the mist had vacated the other side. It wasn't until they were through that they caught sight of the fishing port and their first glimpse of Wave Country.

It was quaint and simple, but that gave it a charm that people just couldn't help smiling about. Trees grew up out of the water, completing the picturesque image. They weren't Konoha trees, but they made the beauty of the scenery complete.

They came up to the docks and quickly got out of the boat. Tazuna turned back to the ferryman and thanked him again for helping them before the man turned on his engine and sped off back to his fishing spot.

"Now, you'd best escort me back to my home!" Tazuna called out as he marched down the docks.

"Can I please just clock him one?" Naruto half-begged his teammates.

"Only after me, and I only go after Kasumi," Ryu regretfully replied.

Tazuna lead them out of the port through the forest along the coastal path that would take them to his home. Hayato immediately had his team deploy in formation around the client and kept an eye out for trouble himself. Given that the ambush they'd noticed earlier on hadn't been sprung, he suspected that the would-be ambushers were chuunin level, at most a very inexperienced jounin. Which meant that they would have had time to report in by now and now they would most likely face an experienced jounin level ninja. And considering that there currently were two jounin on site already, that jounin would either have to be S-Rank, or have some extra A-Rank backup on hand.

They soon discovered how right he was.

It started with the fog.

They were walking along, through the forest outside of the port village on the road to Tazuna's home when it rolled in and covered the entire area in less than a minute. Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi's chakra senses were blanked out, everything around them was just one solid wall of chakra.

"Byakugan!" Neji called, activating his kekkai genkai.

"What is it, Neji?" Gai asked his genin student.

"We are surrounded," Neji stated with a finality in his tone.

"Naruto, Ryu," Hayato gestured. The two genin immediately knelt and slapped their hands to the ground before running off into the fog from a three point stance. "Kasumi, stay by Tenten, support her with your needles. Gai?"

The Green Beast just nodded and stood at the ready, his expression oddly grim.

"Gai-sensei?" Lee whispered, also at the ready.

"Stay with the client, Lee-kun," Gai ordered. Lee acknowledged this and with Tenten and Kasumi filling in the other points, assumed the Swastika Formation.

Suddenly, Naruto reappeared out of the fog and approached Hayato. "I don't know what Neji-teme's been smoking, but there's no one out there. Tazuna told us himself that fog often rolls in without any warning around these parts. It's probably nothing," he said loudly, sneering at Neji.

"Gai?" Hayato asked.

"Neji-kun, are you sure?" Gai asked for confirmation.

Neji, who hadn't dropped his Byakugan the entire time, merely frowned and reported, "I count over fifteen individuals, twelve with chuunin level chakra, two with jounin, and another that... what?!"

"What is it? What happened?" Lee and Tenten both cried out.

"The last chakra signature just vanished. And there are two additional warriors there now, both jounin level chakra," Neji said. "They are all around us."

"Where?" Naruto prompted.

Neji reported the precise locations of all the chuunin signatures. Naruto then poofed into a cloud of white smoke. Neji looked up, surprised. "Kagebunshin?"

"I've been training my genin to be a Support Team, and one of them just so happens to be able to create an army of such support at will," Hayato briefly allowed himself to brag. "Naruto only uses his clones when necessary now, but necessity has lots of variations. Including letting us know where the enemy truly is."

Dark laughter suddenly echoed throughout the fog. None of them could tell where it came from, but it sounded close. Naruto and Ryu came running out from the fog.

"We've got a problem," Ryu told them. "None of those positions were real. There was no one there, at any of the locations Neji told us."

"What? That's impossible. I can see the chakra. There are now twenty people all around us," Neji defended himself.

"Can you see me?" Naruto waved at him.

"He's a clone, by the way," Ryu started to speak, but a tingle up his spine and a feeling in the back of his neck stopped him and had him tackling the girls and the client to the ground. "DOWN!"

The rest all hit the dirt and not a moment too soon as a giant blade, no less than seven feet across, probably more, flew through the space they had just occupied before arching up and slamming into the trunk of a tree some ten feet above their heads.

"HEY! What's the big idea!" Naruto screamed at the shirtless man that had appeared on the handle of the giant sword now embedded into the tree.

Gai and Hayato both silently cursed their luck, while Ryu, who also recognized their opponent, gulped and knew they were in trouble. Another tingle shot up his spine. "Shit! Are you KIDDING ME? MOVE!" Ryu grabbed the closest person and shoved them up off the ground, and not a moment too soon as a bolt of some kind of lightning jutsu flew right where Tazuna had been laying down, blasting a groove in the soil before dissipating. Tracking the trajectory of the attack, Ryu looked up and sitting in the tree opposite from where the first ninja stood, a man in a dark cloak with a bundle on his back appeared, holding twin hook swords in either hand and standing on a branch.

Looking closely, the first ninja was tall, muscular and wore gray camouflage pants and had bandages wrapped over his mouth while his hitai-ate was lopsided and displayed the symbol for Mizugakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist. He had sun-weathered skin, a black strap around his torso for holding the sword no doubt, and short scraggy black hair He also had no eyebrows. The second ninja was a virtual opposite of the first. His head was uncovered, and his dark green locks fell straight around his head, two bangs hanging low over either side of his nose and around his eyes. He wore bandages over most of his body and covered that with his black vest cloak over his billowy maroon pants. He also had a strap on his back, but it was for the basket bundle that was even now still there. Naruto couldn't help noticing that there were two red glowing dots, like eyes, shining from inside that bundle.

Neji suddenly flinched and deactivated his Byakugan. "I can no longer use my Byakugan, Gai-sensei. There's too much chakra in the air, I can't see anything," he whispered to his Jounin Sensei.

"That's not possible!" Tenten exclaimed.

The shirtless stranger chuckled darkly, silencing the Konoha ninja.

"Well, well, well," he said, his voice gravely and deep, "Looks like my men were right on the money. Two squads. Two jounin, six genin, and one of them more dangerous than the others. Looks like I'm one up on you Raiga."

The cloaked ninja, Raiga, scoffed and retorted, "I'm going to look forward to your funeral, Zabuza. We had such good times together. Ah, I wonder if I should have a funeral for those Demon Brothers of yours?"

Zabuza growled, the sound echoed around in the mist. "Remind me why I decided to work with you?"

Raiga just grinned at him and shrugged.

"Hand over the bridge builder and we won't have a problem," Zabuza growled, addressing the Konoha ninja.

"Momochi Zabuza and Kurosuki Raiga," Hayato identified them. "Since when do Mizu-nin of your caliber work for crime boss thugs like Gato?"

"Ah, the good old days..." Raiga sighed mournfully.

"SHUT UP!" Zabuza shouted at him. "I sincerely doubt Konoha's bingo book is that much behind the times. And planning a coup takes money. Maito Gai and Kanzaki Hayato. The Green Beast of Konoha and Star Gladiator. It's an honor."

"Hayato-sensei?" Kasumi asked for direction.

"Protect the client," he ordered. "Gai? Not that I need the help, but I don't want to be greedy. I'm best matched against Raiga, Kirigakure no Raijin. Would you care to take care of Zabuza, Kirigakure no Akuma, over here?"

"Ah, good times," Raiga sighed. "I remember when you earned that name, Zabuza-san. So much blood that day."

"Heh," Zabuza chuckled, reminiscing a bit himself. "Be sure not to underestimate your opponent, Raiga. I don't want to have to bail you out like the last few times."

"Shut up. I told you I only want to remember the good times, teme," Raiga growled right back at him. The hook swords began to spark a bit.

"Lee! Tenten! Neji! My wonderful students!" Gai shouted loud enough that the leaves on the trees shook, and then suddenly continued in a deadly serious voice, "Stay with the client and protect him no matter the costs. Use Team One as support. We will handle the enemy."

Team Gai gulped, they very rarely heard their sensei speak in such a tone, and always knew it was trouble when he did. "Hai, Gai-sensei!" they acknowledged and Neji switched out with Kasumi in the Swastika formation.

"Nova formation. Time to practice your new move. Go!" Hayato ordered his own genin.

"Hai!"

Suddenly there were half a dozen each of Team One spread out in a loose circle around the client. "Chakra Gattai!" three of them called out and then tossed a hand full of shuriken, kunai and senbon needles into the air, which exploded in a cloud of white smoke before becoming nearly a hundred weapons scattered throughout the air. And they remained there in the air, with only a slight wobble or dipping to them.

"What is this?" Neji muttered.

"Our new technique," all the Kasumi's, Naruto's, and Ryu's answered in unison.

"Cute," Raiga commented, while Zabuza laughed openly.

"Now!" Hayato cried out and shot a couple kunai at both enemies. Raiga dropped down to the ground from the tree, while Zabuza pulled his giant sword free and leapt further up the path. Both of them then stood beside each other and formed identical hand seals and called out, "_Mizugakure no jutsu (Hidden in the Mist technique)_!" The mist all around them got considerably thicker so they could barely even see each other, let alone the two enemy ninja.

"Bykaugan!" Neji activated his kekkai genkai once more. "What?! Impossible!"

"Still can't see anything?" Tenten asked, concerned.

"That's kind of the point," Raiga's voice echoed out from the mist.

"Be careful!" Gai warned the genin, "Momochi Zabuza is known for his silent killing techniques!"

"And Raiga is better known for seeing through to a target, no matter how well it's concealed," Hayato added.

"Quite a lot of clones you genin have scattered around this place," Raiga proved the information correct.

"Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle, neck, brain, kidneys, heart," Zabuza's voice echoed from every direction. "Eight points. Instant death from striking just one of them. Hm, and there are just enough of you to make it a variety and do one each. What do you think Raiga?"

"Hm, I'm just looking forward to Tazuna-san's funeral," Raiga's laughter chilled the air even more than the mist had.

The atmosphere was tense and getting more so. The oppressive feeling of four jounin level ninja, all preparing to kill the other was enough to nearly overwhelm the genin, and it definitely had Tazuna cowering in a fetal position after only a few seconds.

Neji, Tenten and Lee were all sweating and their eyes were flitting back and forth. Even Neji, who was usually the coolest customer around, was sweating in his sandals and contemplating succumbing to his fate to die today. Just as it was getting to be too much, Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi, all of them, screamed out, "THERE!" and suddenly a quarter of the shuriken and kunai converged on some point in the fog, while the senbon needles clustered and seemed to be tracking something through the mist. The shuriken and kunai retracted back to their original positions and then homed in on another pointed, ahead of or around the senbon cluster. Gai came from another direction, as evidenced by him punching through Zabuza's water clone. The weapons all retracted back to their original positions around the genin and client.

"Yosh! That is a most youthful jutsu!" he gave Team One a thumbs up and flashed a grin at them that sparkled even in the blinding mist.

"Brats are resourceful, but they're still just brats," Zabuza said, appearing behind Gai, who immediately kicked through him, dispelling the water clone.

"You missed," Raiga whispered, already standing over Tazuna, right behind Neji, Tenten and Lee.

"What makes you say that?" Team One all asked as one.

"Huh?" the Swordsman of the Mist looked down and saw a chakra energy blade sticking through his chest. Hayato hadn't moved, but he had drawn his blade and positioned it appropriately. The blade had actually gone through a couple of the clones and Lee as well, but it did no damage, until the genin got out of the way and an electric shock dispelled the Raiga clone.

"Oh, so we get to see one of the two famous chakra blades Konoha is famous for," Zabuza chuckled. "I'm honored. How about you Raiga?"

"I'm thinking I might need to upgrade after we get rid of these trash. I'm truly looking forward to Tazuna's funeral now."

"Enough talk. Gai? Would you mind?"

"KONOHA DAISENPUU!" Gai was suddenly a green whirlwind, dashing along the ground, blowing the mist away as he made his way towards Zabuza.

Hayato drew Setsumaru and was on Raiga before anyone else knew what was happening. Raiga brought up his hook swords, charged with his lightning chakra, and caught the energy blade between them.

"Hoho, not such an invincible blade after all, hm?" Raiga teased.

"He's holding back and is only attacking with ten percent of his power," the bundle on Raiga's back whispered, but Hayato was now close enough to hear it.

"Thought so," Hayato grunted and jumped back, the blade of his weapon turning intangible, allowing him to withdraw, where if he had a regular sword, Raiga's hook swords would have had him trapped.

"Teme," Raiga muttered.

Gai had Zabuza on the defensive from the start, slamming blow after blow into the swordsman's giant blade and not letting him get enough room or momentum to even start a swing from it. And then the Green Beast got past the Demon's defenses and finally managed to land a solid hit against his body rather than just his sword. Unfortunately, that's when things changed for Gai. Zabusa dissolved in a big splash of water, drenching Gai's leg.

"Mizubunshin!" he exclaimed.

"RRARGH!" Zabuza appeared behind Gai, already swinging his massive blade.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee cried out.

"Lee!" Neji snapped. "Stay in formation."

"Here's where a Support Team comes in handy," Naruto said and then called out, "Go!"

From the ground between them, an extra Naruto and Ryu emerged and stopped the blade cold. The reason why became pretty clear as chips for earth fell from the grooves where the blade had embedded into the two Iwabunshin. "WHAT?!" Zabuza screamed and immediately destroyed the clones by finishing his strike, but the delay was enough. Gai's foot went through his head, making his feet equally wet as the other Mizubunshin was dispelled.

"Yosh! Excellent support!" he shot the genin another flashing grin thumbs up. He then ducked low as Zabuza's sword nearly cleaved his head.

"Are you stupid or something?" Zabuza growled at the Green Beast.

Gai stood tall, maybe posing a bit, and proudly proclaimed, "Stupid is as stupid does!"

Everyone sweat-dropped at that and took some moments to recover, especially the two Mizu Nukenin. Well, everyone except for Lee and Gai, the former of which was nodding sagely in agreement.

"I'm doing the world a service," Zabuza sighed and picked his sword back up and formed a one-handed seal. From the mist and nearby river, half a dozen mizubunshin formed and charged the taijutsu freak.

Back with Raiga and Hayato, the two were dancing around each other, striking and retreating, testing the others defense and reactions. Raiga was channeling lightning chakra to both his hook swords in order to combat Hayato's chakra sword. Some of the time he didn't even bother using his sword, just swinging the electric energy around to further injure or paralyze his opponent. Hayato, however, was doing something with Setsumaru that reversed the polarities at precisely the right moments, allowing him to absorb and successfully block all of the lightning strikes.

"He's modulating the polarity of his own lightning nature chakra with that sword of his, Raiga," the bundle on Raiga's back informed him.

"Tell me something I don't know Ranmaru!" Raiga retorted, his frustration beginning to get the better of him.

"He's going to use his own Raiton jutsu soon," the bundle, Ranmaru answered. "He's been building up to it for several minutes. He's most likely going to use it as soon as he sees an opening. From the distance he keeps trying to maintain from you, I believe it's going to be a mid-range attack."

"Heh, that's more like it!" Raiga suddenly surged forward, closing the distance between him and his opponent within seconds and keeping it close range.

"So," Hayato said as though they weren't in the middle of trying to kill one another, "that must be your apprentice there. Useful ability he has. I see now where you get your reputation for seeing right through your opponents. I trust you are as protective of him as he is of you?"

"You Konoha wimps don't play by those rules," Raiga grinned suddenly, "But I do! Now!"

Two red dots, what could have been the eyes of the person there, lit up from within the bundle on Raiga's back. At the same time, a dozen figures in robes matching Raiga's leapt out of the mist and angled in on the genin and the Bridge Builder.

"I trust my team," was all Hayato said before pushing the attack.

Back with Tazuna and the genin, Team One was still maintaining their _Buntai no jutsu: Mamori Arashi_ and taking out the last of the mizubunshin. Team Gai maintained vigil over the client, not moving from his side. Neji had, at first, tried to offer advice on where to send retaliating attacks, but something was sending out false chakra patterns and was simultaneously blocking what was actually there. Tenten, on the other hand, proved to be most helpful as she kept throwing out weapons for them to grab onto when their shadow cloned weapons either popped or were destroyed by the bunshin.

Just before they got the last of them though, a whole group of cloaked ninja sprang up, and it was quite clear that they were not bunshin, despite wearing the same outfit that Raiga wore.

"Who are these guys?" Naruto asked.

"No clue," answered Ryu, "but safe bet that they're with the bad guys here. Guys, think we can put out a few more layers?"

"I'm at my limit!" Kasumi said, "Unless you guys want to start taking on some more then by all means!"

"Then in that case," Ryu adjusted his stance and flow of chakra through their combined chakra strings, the others adapted accordingly, before he'd even had to say anything, "Pick your targets!"

Team One briefly re-fused their chakra, to get another quick boost for their new technique, one that would be the offensive version of the jutsu they'd been using in the fight so far. Once it was ready, they cried out, "_Buntai no jutsu: Inmetsu Nadare! _(Team Combo: Destructive Avalanche)"

Immediately, all of the weapons that had been hovering around them like a porcupine's quills, shot out in all directions and homed in on all of the attacking ninja. If all it was going to be was a fancy way of launching weapons at the enemy, the wouldn't have bothered with the big production. All around, hidden in the ground, the trees, and in some even the water, Team One's clones that they had been peppering the area with since the start of the fight, lay in wait for just this. All of those clones were linked into the connect the same as the three genin, and were ready for it when the weapons came past them.

If one of the attacking ninja successfully dodged or deflected a weapon, they were stunned to find it flying right back at them from a completely unexpected direction! It wasn't too much longer before all of them were kept to one spot as projectiles hovered around them, sometimes attacking, sometimes blocking for other weapons, and some just hanging there against their throats or wrists or whatever.

Thankfully there were only about a dozen or so of these enemy ninja, because if it had been more, there was a good chance that Team One wouldn't have been able to keep up. With just twelve or so, they had all the enemy ninja surrounded on all sides by weapons that just kept coming at them, or restricted their movements, keeping them on the defensive and no longer able to attack.

Unfortunately, given that this was the first time they had ever used this particular jutsu, Team One found themselves rooted to where the stood, having to concentrate solely on maintaining the jutsu and little else. So when another Zabuza bunshin popped up, they were left completely vulnerable.

Fortunately, the Support Team had a little support of their own.

"Jyuken!" Neji's open palm slammed into the base of the water clone's spine, dispelling it. "Keep it up!" he shouted at the younger genin, "We'll cover you!"

They nodded as one and the weapons flying about actually became more aggressive towards their targets. Before it could be declared victory, however, one of the enemy ninja pulled out an explosive and tossed it towards the group.

"I have it!" Lee shouted and there was a green blur through the air and then the explosive was suddenly tossed back to where it came from. The guy that threw it suddenly regretted doing so as it exploded in his face.

"Who are these guys anyway?" Tenten asked aloud.

"The Kurosuki Family," Kasumi and Neji answer together.

"Who are they?" Naruto, Ryu and Lee all asked.

"Rogue ninja clan, basically," Kasumi answered. Neji just scoffed, which was the same as agreeing, Lee and Tenten knew. "Not an actual family, but I recognize Raiga and heard about the gang he'd started, calling themselves the Kurosuki Family."

"I heard about it from Hiashi-sama," was all Neji would say about it.

"YOSH!" Gai screamed out as he rapid-punched the flat side of Zabuza's blade, the only way the swordsman could block the Green Beast's attacks.

"What does that even mean?!" Zabuza roared as he pushed back against the taijutsu freak and swung the cleaver like it was made out of balsa wood rather than chakra-reinforced steel.

"Yosh means YOSH!" Gai helpfully replied, sweeping in with a fast combination of kicks that had Zabuza on the defensive again. He was then caught off-guard all of a sudden when Zabuza met his next kick with the back edge of the cleaver with more than enough force to break the man's leg, had the man in question not immediately turned his kick into a back-flip, using the force of Zabuza's swing to gain further distance.

Unfortunately, it also marked the turning point in their battle as now the Demon of the Mist had Gai on the defensive and no further opportunities were being presented for him to change it back his way. It was all the Green Beast could do to keep dodging and blocking the swings from the Demon's massive cleaver, especially when said Demon liked to get a few mizubunshin to help him out, each with their own copy of the cleaver and one quarter the strength of the original. Of course when you have four clones and the original coming at you from five different directions, it sort of makes up for the difference in strength.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted, worried.

Suddenly, Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi were there, each tackling a clone to the ground and away from the jounin, leaving him to deal with the original and one clone. "_Konoha_ _Senpuu_!" Gai suddenly cried out and became a virtual whirlwind of kicking feet, striking both high, low and everywhere in between in both directions. The mizubunshin was near instantly dispelled, while Zabuza found himself restrained in further blocking after the first high kick. Thus, the low kicks landed and did significant damage before he could properly defend against them, or the follow up attacks.

"Damnit!" Zabuza cursed as he was knocked back to the ground by Gai's attack.

"HAA!" the genin clones all screamed and then exploded, Ryu and Kasumi with far weaker yields than Naruto's, but still effective as Zabuza's remaining bunshin were easily destroyed.

Hayato and Raiga continued trading blows with their respective Lightning Element weapons. Sparks flew, the occasional bolt misfired and scorched the ground or the trees around them, and their arms started to go numb. Not that it bothered either of them as it merely allowed them to ignore the pain from the energy from their opponent's weapon when some blows inevitably got through.

"Persistent... bastard... eh?" Raiga grunted.

"..." Hayato didn't have much to say, choosing to instead focus most of his energy on attack and defense.

"Fine... Be... that way!" Raiga exclaimed as he jumped back and charged even more chakra into his swords. From his back, Ranmaru whispered, "I've been watching. He drops his guard just before countering from a lock. He patterns his strikes in time with his heartbeat. His sword also can transition between solid, elemental and intangible. His footwork is solid and rapid, but he puts his weight on the left when he strikes."

"Heh, gotcha now, persistent bastard," he said, smiling savagely.

The genin were being swamped by the assailants of the Kurosaki Family. Skill wise, there wasn't much difference between the more experienced genin and the ninja-trained thugs, but even with all the clones from Team One backing them up, the rogue clan still had the numbers superiority. Especially since the defenders numbers mostly came in the form of Shadow and Water clones, which were notoriously easy to disperse.

"We need to find some way to turn the tide of battle," Tenten said to her companions. "Otherwise..."

"Otherwise they can just whittle away at us until we're too exhausted to fight anymore," Neji agreed.

"I'm open for suggestions," the real Ryu said from where he was maintaining their defensive jutsu with the other two at his side.

All of a sudden, shouting across the battlefield, Hayato called, "Gai! I need some room! Set me up!"

"YOSH!" Gai screamed, getting into a Horse stance before bringing both hands, palms open and outward and fingers bent into claws, up to his face.

"_KAIMON! KYUMON! SEIMON! SHOMON! __**TOMON**__! __KAIHOU!_" At each word the jounin screamed out, and he was definitely screaming, an explosion of chakra came from him and pressed on everybody on the field. Around Gai himself, the fog surrounding them actually was repelled by the sheer force of chakra he was giving off. By the time he said the fifth word, his skin had turned an ugly red and his eyes had gone white. His hair flew up and somehow stayed there despite him not moving and the amount of wind flowing not logically able to account for the phenomenon.

Zabuza sought to take full advantage of the situation, moving silently in behind Gai, he swung his sword at full strength through the Green Beast's neck. Only to discover half a second too late that it was only an after-image. Gai slammed a kick into the masked man's torso, so hard that he was actually sent airborne. Then, in a blaze of movement that not even the ninja could keep track of, Gai began going from enemy to enemy, kicking them all up into the air.

Ranmaru gasped, drawing Raiga's attention away from where Hayato was charging an attack with his energy blade. "He's coming!" was all the bundled boy had time to whisper before Gai arrived and kicked them both into the air. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, the force from Gai's kick was also sufficient to dislodge Ranmaru from Raiga's back.

"_Plasma Field: Rasetsu Zan!_" came from Hayato before an electrical blue chakra glow covered his entire body and he disappeared, only to briefly reappear in the air, energy sword fully penetrating Zabuza's falling body. He disappeared in the next instant, only to reappear at the next falling body, and then the next, and the next and the next, until he'd fully stunned every last one... except for Ranmaru.

When the bodies all fell to the ground, they were unconscious and it was unlikely that they'd be moving anytime soon. Except that as the dust settled from all the limp bodies striking the earth like falling pigeons, one of them did get back up; Raiga.

"Th-thanks for the... charge up!" he said, "_Rairyu no Tatsu—_ARGH!"

Everyone then watched as the former Mizunin collapsed where he stood, a single senbon needle sticking out of the base of his neck. Likewise, other needles flew out and landed in vital spots in all of the downed criminals, some in the necks, others in the temples or other head shots, a few in areas along the spine or chest where the heart was. Though the Konoha-nin stayed on guard, they worried about some of those coming their way. Thankfully, none did.

Once the barrage of needles had stopped, there was silence all around. Gai and Hayato, both exhausted, physically and with chakra depletion, nevertheless prepared themselves for the worst.

In the middle of the battlefield, a team of Mizu ANBU suddenly appeared. There were five of them in total, and most surprisingly was the one in the middle, the smallest of the group, seemed to be in charge. It was also clear who had thrown the Senbon, given that he held a full brace of them in one hand.

"I thank you for you assistance, but we will take it from here." He spoke softly. A sharp gesture had the other four moving about and 'collecting' the various Kurosuki clan members. They were all sealed in scrolls at a speed that had the genin heads spinning, although part of that may also have been chakra exhaustion. The leader, however, went and 'collected' Raiga and Zabuza personally, though all he did was pick them up and toss them across his shoulders.

"Our mission has no conflict with yours," the leader spoke one final time, "Your mission is to protect that old man over there. Ours is to collect traitors to our village and protect village secrets. Farewell."

With that said, the Mizu ANBU vanished just as quickly as they appeared. Enemy defeated... sort of, Team One canceled their jutsu and retrieved their weapons. Though each of them had something to protest, none of them said a word, merely looking to their Jounin Sensei for instructions.

Hayato put his weapon away and resumed walking to their original destination.

"Hayato-kun..." Gai started to say, but silenced himself at the look on his fellow jounin's face.

"I know," he growled.

"What do you think we should do?" Gai asked quietly, actually quiet as he didn't want the genin hearing.

"Five could be all they held in reserve, or this could be a Mizu operation, looking to input foreign operatives into our forces. They've done it before. Or they could all be missing ninja and they managed to get undamaged ANBU masks from a whole ANBU squad. Either way, we're exhausted, I can't use another technique like that for at least another day, and you actually used the Gates. Let's retreat to safe ground and deal with them another time. Besides, the Byakugan, for whatever reason, doesn't work against them."

"Hm," Gai nodded. Turning to the client and genin, he told them, "Yosh! That was incredibly bracing, would you not agree my Youthful companions?"

"HAI GAI-SENSEI!" Lee actually snapped to attention.

The others all just shot incredulous looks between the two Green Beasts.

"Tazuna-san! We shall be continuing our journey to your lovely home!" Gai shouted for the whole island to hear.

"Uh, r-right," the old bridge builder agreed and started walking.

The two teams stayed in formation around their client, tense and ready for just about anything after their last encounter. It took them another half an hour at their slower pace, but soon they came to Tazuna's home and were greeted with the smiles of his daughter, and the scowls of her son. Both default expressions turned to surprise when they saw exactly how many ninja their father/grandfather had brought back home with him.

"Uh, I'm home!" Tazuna called sheepishly.

TBC!

_(*Explanation: No real excuse here, but I seemed to have lost the head of steam I had for this fanfic. Anyway, people have been waiting long enough for this, so seeing as I couldn't seem to get past this one fight scene and into what I really wanted to write—the Element Training Scenes—I wrapped up the fight scene real quick the last few days before Halloween and have posted it on the sacred holiday. And so concludes "Part 1" of the Wave Arc chapters. Depending on how long it takes me to build my head of steam back up will determine if there are only two parts... or more. Anyway, enjoy what you've got, no telling when more will be coming!)_


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